Sonic Tales: The Coming Storm
by Meta X
Summary: Another adventure.  To Sonic, that isn't very exciting.  But now, Sonic will have the fight of his life, as he and his friends must survive the Coming Storm
1. Same old, same old

It was a nice, warm morning on Mobius. The wind was blowing gently, the sun was shining warmly, and there was no disturbance whatsoever.

Except for the terrified screams of hundreds of people.

"Hohohoh!" laughed the voice of world renowned evil scientist, Dr. Eggman. The calm peace was shattered at Station Square as hundreds of people screamed and panicked at the sight of Dr. Eggman and his robots. "Everyone, remain calm. I would like my taking over your city to be quick and easy." Eggman yelled. Eggman's robots had already begun to invade the city, destroying numerous parts of the streets and chasing the terrified citizens out of their way. The local police were unable to stop Eggman's robots advancing towards City Hall because they had to stop the other robots attacking everywhere else in the city.

"Not a chance, Eggman!" a familiar voice loomed. Just when Eggman was looking around to see the caller of this voice, a blue light sped right past him, almost sending him off of his Eggmobile. The blue light circled a group of robot in a crazed fashion. Soon a small twister formed, engulfing the robots and tearing them apart. The blue light stopped to reveal a being. This being was none other than Sonic the Hedgehog! At the sight of Sonic, Eggman's face turned from confused to angry.

"What's wrong Eggman? Did I ruin your little party?" asked Sonic, with a smug look on his face. Eggman only got even angrier from this comment and yelled "The only thing that's going to be ruined is you!" With the press of a button, Eggman's Eggmobile soon attached a larger dome onto it's body, two missile launchers, and two guns on it's sides. "This time, I'll take care of you Sonic!" bellowed Eggman as he activated the missile launchers.

About eight missiles had launched from Eggman's machine and aimed toward Sonic. With only a yawn, Sonic ran toward them and jumped. He landed on a missile which another missile then aimed toward. Sonic jumped just in time before the missiles collided and landed on another one. One by one each of the missiles crashed into each other until there were none left. Sonic then spun toward the bottom of Eggman's machine and bounced off of it, its dome protecting it. "Ha ha! Your attacks cannot penetrate my dome!" laughed Eggman. Sonic landed onto the ground and sped through the street, with Eggman's machine's guns firing lasers at him. Sonic dodged them effortlessly and jumped but knew it would be no use trying to attack the machine again.

That's when he got an idea. Sonic sped around Eggman's machine, taunting him that his missiles couldn't hit him. Eggman responded by firing another eight missiles at him. Just like before. Sonic jumped from one to another and forcing the missiles to collide into each other except two. Sonic then ran toward Eggman's machine and jumped and landed on it. Sonic saw the missiles coming toward him and at the last second jumped, causing the missiles to slam into the Eggmobile. Sonic saw an opening in the armor and spun toward it, breaking through one side and coming out of the other.

In one second, the machine exploded, leaving only Eggman and the Eggmobile. Eggman's face was now red with rage. "Grrrrrr, you may have defeated me this time Sonic, but I will soon triumph!" With that Eggman flew off and the rest of his robots retreated.

Dozens of cheers and applauses came to Sonic as he once again defeated Eggman. After Sonic waved to the crowd, he then sped off toward the Mystic Ruins, hoping he could talk to Tails.


	2. Trouble from the Ground

Sonic was getting closer and closer to Tails' house in the Mystic Ruins.

"Two more minutes, and I'm there" he thought to himself. All of a sudden, Egg Pawns emerged from behind bushes, out of trees, and out of the ground. Sonic didn't stop; he didn't need to stop. He jumped and used the homing attack to take them out, one by one.

"Way to easy" he said to himself, as he dashed off toward Tails' house.

Sonic knocked on Tails' door. "Tails! You there?" Sonic heard a few thumps and then a large crash with the sound of breaking glass. The door soon opened, revealing Tails rubbing the back of his head, but with a smile on his face. "Come on in."

Sonic and Tails then walked to Tails' lab. "So, did Eggman give you a lot of trouble?" asked Tails. "Nah, he's just getting easier and easier. But it's still fun to mess around with him." Sonic replied, lying back on a couch. Sonic noticed that Tails was tinkering with a certain machine. "You're still working on that thing?" asked Sonic. Tails stopped, and then looked back. "Well, if it will help me study and better understand the properties of the Chaos Emeralds, then I can't just stop working on it." Sonic got up, "I know, I know. But your losing sleep, you have been working on that machine for six nights in a row. You barely ever do anything else besides eat. You should at least get some rest." Tails sat down, "Trust me, I wish it were that easy. It's not just building this machine, it's guarding it. If Eggman ever found out about it, he would come after it for sure." Sonic walked toward a window and jokingly replied, "Don't worry; even if Eggman did find out about it, he wouldn't even be able to figure out how to open the front door." Tails laughed, "I guess you're right."

"SOONNIIIICCC!" a large voice boomed, causing Sonic to trip. "No way, she couldn't have found me here." There was a loud knocking on the door, to which Sonic hid somewhere saying "If she asks, tell her I'm not here." Just before Tails was able to reply, the door came crashing down, revealing a pink hedgehog. "Tails! Where's Sonic?" she asked impatiently. Tails slowly answered, "Uh, I have no idea Amy." Amy then yelled "You're lying, I saw him come over here." Tails the said, "Amy, you were following Sonic again?" "Well how am I supposed to find him if I don't" she answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Just as Amy was about to say something else, she heard something. Amy turned around and noticed Sonic trying to sneak away. Her voice was full of glee, "Found you, Sonic!" Sonic then stopped and slowly turned around to see Amy running toward him. Sonic then started to run, hoping he would get away.

Elsewhere, someone else was going through their own form of suffering. Deep in the jungle in Mystic Ruins was a small base. Egg Pawns surrounded the building and were patrolling the area. Inside the base, it was damp, dark, with the overpowering smells of gas and oil. Deep in the base, in a slightly lit room, laid a man crying and complaining.

"It's not fair! Why can't I win? That pesky hedgehog always gets in my way!" That man was Doctor Eggman. He was sitting at a desk filled with schematics and plans which he had gone over but concluded that they would not let him achieve his goals. "No matter what I do, I just can't win! No fair!" Not far from Eggman stood the metallic figure that was Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic was standing in a dark part of the room, barely noticeable except for his red glowing eyes. He simply stood there watching as his master was sitting there and complaining. If Metal Sonic could roll his eyes, he would. Metal Sonic said to a passing Egg Pawn, "This is pathetic, a grown man who wants to conquer the world, and he's sitting there crying." The Egg Pawn just walked away, since it had no ability to talk. Eggman, however, had heard Metal Sonic's statement and replied "Metal Sonic, if I wasn't wallowing in self pity over here, I would fry your circuitry" Metal Sonic had said nothing but still knew what he said was the truth. He watched as Eggman continued to cry and complain, knowing it truly was a pathetic sight. Metal Sonic grew tired of watching this and walked over to Eggman. He examined all of the blueprints and understood why Eggman was acting like this. These plans were terrible! Not one of them even had the slightest potential at conquering the world or defeating Sonic. The only thing in that base that had the potential to beat Sonic was him, however, he had trouble showing that truth to Eggman. Then Metal Sonic had an idea. He went over toward a cabinet labeled: **Plots and Schemes**. Metal Sonic searched through it and finally found the folder he was looking for.

"Master, if you really want to defeat Sonic, why don't you use one of these plans?" asked Metal Sonic. Eggman stopped crying, looked back and replied, " None of those plans would ever help me conquer the world." "Really, what about the Coming Storm?" Metal asked. Eggman rose up and ran toward Metal Sonic saying " That plan is too risky, it could work or it could fail hideously" Metal Sonic stated " I believe now would be an excellent time to unleash this plan, considering all that has happened recently." Eggman thought back. He unleashed the God of Destruction, Chaos, who destroyed most of Station Square. He unleashed Shadow on the world and nearly destroyed it using the Eclipse Cannon. And just recently, He released the entity within Mobius that was Dark Gaia, by separating the world into pieces. All those times, Sonic had saved the world, but because of those events, it was the perfect time to use the Coming Storm. Eggman quickly grabbed the folder from Metal Sonic and examined it. Yes, it truly was the perfect time to use this plan. "Metal Sonic! Come with me!" Eggman yelled triumphantly, as they walked toward one of the largest rooms in the base.

"Come on Amy! I don't have time for this!" yelled a tired Sonic. Amy had chased him around in the same large circle for almost 20 minutes. At this point, Sonic had grown tired of the chase. As the two hedgehogs were running closer to the waterfall, a loud rumbling stopped them in their tracks. Almost immediately, a large robot burst from the ground in front of them. The robot resembled a squid, with six metallic tentacles, a slender shape, and a large drill at the top of its head. Probably the most revealing part of it was the large Eggman logo on the side of it. The towering machine was at least three times the size of Tails' house.

"Wow, looks like Eggmans following me" Sonic said to himself.

The robot then suddenly moved its legs, placing them carefully on the cliff sides, now only two of its legs remained at the ground. Then the robot's body extended, revealing many laser guns normally used by Egg Pawns. In one second, all of the guns fired right toward Sonic, who grabbed Amy and ran toward a different area. Afterward, Sonic tried using a spin dash on the robots body, but he simply bounced off of it. Amy had also tried using her hammer at one of its legs, but once again, it did nothing.

"Come on! What's this thing made of?" yelled Sonic.

Suddenly, the robot lifted one of its legs and attempted to crush Sonic, who dodged the attack and tried to spin dash into it, but again, nothing happened. The robot soon started sliding its legs, scraping them across the ground. Sonic easily dodged this, but Amy had more trouble. To make matters worse, the bottom of the robot opened. Several Egg Pawns in heavy armor jumped out of the opening.

"Amy! Go take out those robots! I'll draw this things attention." yelled Sonic.

Amy did as he said. Amy ran up to the robots, smacking each of them with her hammer. Eventually, she destroyed them all. Sonic had tried running up on the robots leg, however all its guns started firing at him. To avoid the shower of laser fire, Sonic jumped to the ground. As soon as he hit the ground, one of the lasers had flown past him, burning his arm. It didn't hurt that much, but it would burn for a bit.

It had seemed that no matter what Sonic or Amy did, the robot would remain unaffected. Although the battle was difficult, Sonic had no intention of giving up. He had defeated Eggman's robots before, and every time they had a weak point. Sonic looked at the robot. There seemed to be no cockpit, so he doubted Eggman was in it. The legs were too hard to break through, and its body had too many guns on it to attempt to attack there. Then Sonic looked at the bottom of the robot. The opening where the Egg Pawns had come out of was closed, but didn't look very sturdy. He then yelled for Amy to come back to him and shared his plan with her. Both Sonic and Amy ran near the bottom of the machine. Sonic started his spin dash, while Amy readied her hammer. Then, Amy hit Sonic with her hammer, launching him right where the opening was. He broke through. And in a few seconds the robot was swaying back and forth erratically as Sonic was spinning around inside of it. After a few seconds, Sonic spin dashed right out of the front of the robot, grabbed Amy, and ran for a safe distance. The massive robot continued swaying until finally it had fallen on one side, crashing down to the ground. It remained there, lifeless.

"We did it!" cheered Amy.

Back at Eggmans base, Eggman and Metal Sonic had reached their destination. It was the Control room. Metal Sonic quickly looked around as he did not remember this room being there before.

It was a large room. It was really bright thanks to the numerous lights on the ceiling. On the ground sat a number of robots, all on control panels. As Eggman and Metal Sonic walked forward, Metal noticed a circular object on the main control panel. It was Orbot, one of Eggmans more "sassy" robots. As soon as Eggman and Metal reached the control panel, Orbot popped up.

"Good morning, Doctor" it had said in its monotonous voice. Metal had remembered that Orbot was Eggmans assistant during the events at Dark Gaia's release. From what Metal Sonic had read in the reports, it seemed Orbot was able to continuously annoy the doctor by explaining all of the problems Eggmans plans had in them.

Eggman quickly got to the point. "Please activate the procedure for the plan Coming Storm."

"At once, Doctor" it replied. "Although I regret to inform you that the Egg Driller has just recently been destroyed by Sonic, and at its last transmission, it reported recovering a Chaos Emerald."

"A Chaos Emerald?" asked Eggman. "Metal Sonic, you must retrieve that Chaos Emerald. Oh, and have some fun with Sonic." He said slyly. Metal Sonic simply nodded and walked off, eager to face his adversary.

"Project Coming Storm. Requesting final clearance." stated Orbot, as a button raised from the Control panel. Eggman spared no time as he pressed the button. He now knew that this plan would help him achieve his goals.

Back at the Mystic Ruins, Sonic and Amy were about to go back to Tails' house until a familiar voice had stopped them.

"Hello, Sonic"

Sonic quickly turned around, and saw Metal Sonic standing atop the wreckage of the machine he and Amy had just destroyed. Sonic's faced turned from cheerful to serious in not time.

"Ready for Round Two?"


	3. Metal and Metal part 1

There he was, just standing there. As if Sonic didn't already have enough problems today. First he had to face Eggman, then one of his massive machines, and now Metal Sonic? This day was getting slightly more interesting. Before Sonic could say anything, Metal Sonic slammed his fist into the robots armor, breaking it. To Sonic's surprise, Metal pulled out the purple Chaos Emerald from the robots hull.

Sonic quietly said to Amy "Amy, go to Tails' house and tell him Metal Sonic's here, see if he has anything to help me beat him."

Amy nodded slowly and started walking away, turning around to see if Metal Sonic had started coming for her. She was surprised that he was standing in the exact same spot, his focus entirely on Sonic. It seemed Metal didn't even look at Amy for a second. She eventually sped up and started running toward Tails' house, leaving the two rivals to their fight.

"What are you doing here Metal? To bug me?" asked Sonic, who just barely had any joy in his voice.

"Actually, I have been ordered to retrieve this Chaos Emerald for my master. But he said I could play with you a bit." answered Metal Sonic, who seemed to be enjoying this confrontation.

Sonic took a fighting pose, ready for whatever Metal would throw at him. If Metal really did come for a fight, he would be ready. Metal Sonic however, still did not move. He still stared at Sonic, as if he was just a statue. Metal Sonic had noticed the burnt mark on Sonics arm, knowing he would exploit that unfortunate weakness. Metal started his engine and soon flew off toward the jungle. Sonic spared no time as he began trailing right after him.

Meanwhile, Amy had just reached Tails' house. She ran over the already broken down door and headed toward Tails with panic stricken eyes.

"Tails!" she screamed, nearly making Tails jump up in surprise. He turned around to see Amy in complete shock. "What's wrong Amy?" he asked, completely bewildered. Amy had almost lost her breath, only managing to stutter out "Me…Sonic…Metal…" Tails just go even more confused by this. He then said "Slow down. Take a deep breath and tell me what happened." Amy took a breath and stated that she and Sonic faced off with a giant robot and won, afterward Metal Sonic appeared and Sonic told her to get Tails for help. Tails understood and checked in a large cabinet. He took a large gun with a scope. "What's that?" Amy asked. Tails replied "It's an EMP" Amy just stared at him, not knowing what he was saying. Tails explained "It's an electromagnetic pulse." Amy asked "And that's going to beat Metal Sonic?" Tails nodded, saying "It will slow him down, if not completely stop him." Amy then grabbed Tails' arm and dragged him to the spot where Metal and Sonic were, only to see that they weren't there.

The once quiet jungle was now filled with the sounds of an engine and taunting. Metal Sonic and Sonic were racing through the jungle. With the use of his jet engine, Metal stayed above the trees while Sonic had to stay on the ground. Sonic had an immensely hard time trying to keep up with Metal because the trees were so thick and he couldn't gain any high speed at all. Nevertheless, Sonic continued his speedy pursuit, refusing to give up after all that had just happened. Metal Sonic however, just kept taunting him.

"It's amazing that you're still catching up with me. I would've thought that by now you would give up." taunted Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic felt that Eggmans idea for Metal to keep his personality and voice was wonderful. Now Metal was able to taunt Sonic instead of the other way around. Sonic however, didn't share that joy.

Struggling to keep up, Sonic yelled "You wouldn't be doing so well if you weren't flying above the trees!" He knew that Metal was trying to get under his skin and take his focus off of what was in front of him, but Sonic wasn't going to let Metal win so easily. Sonic just barely dodged a tree, and nearly slammed into another one right next to it. Sonic jumped over it and continued running. He soon remembered those moves he had learned during the Dark Gaia event. Sonic had now just utilized one of the moves, the Quick Step, to dodge another tree. When he saw that Metal was flying farther ahead, he used the other move, the Sonic Boost, to quickly go at a high speed while knocking numerous trees out of his way. Metal Sonic noticed this and thought it was time for a change.

"Let's make this more interesting, shall we?" Metal asked as he lowered himself closer to the trees. Metal soon found himself at the same height that Sonic was at. A tree soon got in his way, and Metal Sonic simply used his claws to cut it in half, sending the broken half flying toward Sonic, who just narrowly dodged it. Metal Sonic noticed this and cut another tree in his path, which Sonic dodged once again. Metal continuously did this until Sonic grew so tired he wouldn't dodge it. After a few more trees were cut down, one had finally hit its mark. Sonic had fallen down, and had injured his elbow upon impact with the ground. But still, Sonic refused to give up to Metal, and continued the chase. Little did he know that someone else was about to go through the same problem as him.

A disturbance. Knuckles opened his eyes. Something did not feel right. Normally, when he was guarding the Master Emerald, it was quiet and calm. But today felt different. Knuckles looked around, trying to see if there was any form of danger within the area. He saw nothing, but nevertheless, he walked toward the Master Emerald. He looked into its glowing brilliance, the sun shining off of it. He looked closer, hoping he would find the answer to this problem. Then he saw something, a faint red object that grew bigger and bigger. As time passed, it kept growing bigger. Knuckles looked closer at it and realized it was a reflection. He looked back, and then rolled against the ground, dodging the object just in time. Knuckles stood up to get a closer look. Whatever it was, it was around his height and now started to land onto the ground. It was when it landed that Knuckles knew what it was. It was a robot, and not just any robot, but a very familiar one, Metal Knuckles.

Knuckles watched in amazement as his metal counterpart that he didn't see in such a long time was standing in front of him. Metal Knuckles barely looked any different. It still had its two long claws on each arm, the small engine on its back, and those soulless green eyes. After a long stare down, Knuckles ran toward Metal Knuckles, aiming at the head, Knuckles made a punch, but was surprised to see that Metal Knuckles wasn't there any more. By the time he realized where Metal was, it was too late. Metal Knuckles delivered a kick right at Knuckles' stomach, followed by a head butt which sent Knuckles careening back. It was strong, but not enough. Knuckles soon jumped into the air and started gliding, watching Metal, who was just standing there. Soon Knuckles flew down readying a punch which Metal Knuckles dodged, and then sent a punch of its own. Knuckles narrowly dodged it, and delivered a kicked straight for the robots head, knocking it back. But then Metal Knuckles jumped and dropped, claws extended aiming for Knuckles. Knuckles got out of the way, causing Metal Knuckles' arm to get stuck in the ground. Knuckles readied an attack, when suddenly; Metal Knuckles' free arm shot a laser which hit right at Knuckles' chest.

"Augh" yelled Knuckles, the pain for the shot worse than he had expected. He looked at his chest, and saw a burnt mark with some smoke still coming out.

Now Knuckles was angry. He got up and saw Metal rip its arm out of the ground and preparing for another attack. Knuckles punched the ground, causing a small tremor which shook Metal Knuckles off balance. Knuckles took this chance and tackled Metal Knuckles. Now that they were both on the ground, Knuckles had no idea of what was about to come next.

Meanwhile, Sonic's pursuit of Metal Sonic was not getting any better. Metal was still ripping the trees in half and Sonic was still dodging them. However, Sonic was getting tired; he was pushing himself just to keep up with Metal Sonic, who had no trouble clearing his way through the jungle. Sonic had then tried spin dashing into Metal Sonic's back. It connected, and Metal was pushed forward, almost hitting the ground before starting his engine again. Now Sonic and Metal were right next to each other. Sonic tried pushing Metal Sonic into a tree, but couldn't as Metal Sonic shoved him away before he could get close to a tree. Metal then used his own spin dash against the ground, causing lots of dust to blow into Sonic's face. Sonic couldn't see, and he had to hurry, at this point, any little thing could allow Metal to get away. Sonic rubbed his eyes, only to see a tree in his way; he used the Quick Step to dodge it and continued his chase.

Right in front of Sonic and Metal Sonic was a large clearing. It was here that Metal decided to stop, with Sonic stopping right behind him. Metal turned around to see that Sonic was still there.

"Well done. I never expected you to keep on chasing me all this time." Metal said.

"I'm not one to give up." Sonic replied.

"So it seems. I remember you taking on a fighting pose earlier today. If you want a battle, I have no problems giving one to you!" exclaimed Metal Sonic as he took a fighting pose.

Sonic did the same as he replied, "Bring it on Metal Head!"

In an instant, Metal charged at Sonic, and before Sonic could react, he was flying across the clearing and landed hard on the ground. Sonic looked up to see Metal hovering over him. Sonic quickly did a spin dash aiming for Metal Sonic, who caught the spin dash in his arms. Before Metal Sonic could throw him, Sonic delivered a kick to Metal's face, causing him to flinch while Sonic charged another spin dash. Instead of catching Sonic, Metal smacked him out of the way with his arm, sending Sonic crashing into the ground. Metal Sonic then landed onto the ground. Sonic quickly got up and threw a punch, but because his elbow was injured, it was too slow. Metal grabbed Sonic's arm and pulled him in for a punch to the stomach. Sonic was shocked at the pain, and was too slow to dodge Metal Sonic next attack, which was a beam fired from his torso. Sonic fell on the ground, tired and bruised, and struggled to get up. Metal just stood there watching.

"Is this really all you can do? I would've expected a better fight from my greatest rival." stated Metal Sonic, not at all impressed.

Sonic looked up. Metal had no dents in his armor or was struggling to stand at all. Sonic grew weak, but he couldn't let Metal Sonic keep the Chaos Emerald. He just couldn't. Sonic braced himself for Metal Sonic's next attack.

Meanwhile, a similar struggle was taking place. Knuckles had knocked down his doppelganger onto the ground and was trying to beat him, but it grew evident that this would not be easy. Knuckles threw a punch, which Metal Knuckles moved its head out of the way and delivered a kick to the groin. Knuckles held in the pain as he tried using both his fists to smash Metals head into the ground. He missed, and made himself wide open for an attack. Metal Knuckles threw its own punch, extending its claws. Knuckles barely got his head out of the way, but the attack still connected. Now across his face, Knuckles had two long slash marks. Enraged, Knuckles kept trying to punch his doppelganger, who kept on dodging. Metal then head butted Knuckles off of it and readied another attack. Knuckles got ready, not about to lose to this opponent.


	4. Metal and Metal part 2

This was ridiculous. The last echidna on Angel Island, guardian of the Master Emerald, who had helped save the world on many occasions, and he couldn't beat one robot. Knuckles watched as his metallic counterpart walked closer and closer toward him. Knuckles spared no expense as he ran toward the robot, readying a powerful punch. As soon as he believed the punch would make contact, Metal Knuckles swiftly dodged it, grabbed Knuckles' arm and threw him across the land. Knuckles landed flat on his face but quickly got back up, getting angrier by the minute. Metal Knuckles had already begun its next attack ready to slam into Knuckles. Knuckles however dodged it, grabbed Metal Knuckles, and delivered a straight punch right to the head. Metal Knuckles flipped over, collapsing on the ground. Knuckles gave it no chance to get back up as he kicked it right in the torso. The robot flinched slightly, but quickly rose up, sending a swift kick towards Knuckles' stomach, knocking him down. Before Knuckles could get back up, he noticed Metal aiming the laser on its arm toward him. Knuckles rolled out of the way before the laser was able to hit his head. Knuckles got up, and angrily charged at Metal Knuckles, who was unable to guard itself. Knuckles made contact, and sent a punch toward Metal's arm, damaging the laser until it was useless. Knuckles believed he now had more of a chance, but was launched into the air by Metal Knuckles' punch. Knuckles landed right in front of the Master Emerald. While on the ground he stared at it, and heard the continuous steps of Metal getting closer to him. Now Knuckles was completely determined to not let the robot win, as he got up, and charged toward the robot.

Meanwhile, Sonic was busy getting tossed around by Metal Sonic. Sonic crashed to the ground, covered in bruises. He managed to get up, only to get slammed in the back by a flying Metal Sonic. Sonic fell again, but still got up, refusing to back down to his robotic adversary. Metal hovered over him, waiting for his next attack. To Metals surprise, Sonic ran in the opposite direction. Sonic was not one to give up, so he must have been scheming something. Sure enough, Sonic stopped, and then ran back to Metal at high speed. Before Metal Sonic could react, Sonic had spun in the air knocking Metal into the air. But Sonic wasn't done; he then spun around Metal, eventually causing the Blue Tornado. Metal Sonic couldn't get himself to guard Sonic's next attack, which was jumping high into the air and delivering a kick, straight down at Metals head. With that, Metal Sonic crashed into the ground, massive amounts of dust cloaking him. Sonic gracefully landed to the ground and smirked.

"How's that for power, Metal?" Sonic yelled triumphantly. To his surprise, by the time the dust cleared, Metal Sonic was already standing straight.

"Not bad, Sonic. But I was hoping you would have much more than that." Metal Sonic remarked. With an angered look on his face, Sonic had lost all patience. He was going to have to kick it into overdrive if he was going to beat Metal. Throwing all patience out the window, Sonic charged at Metal Sonic, and Metal did the same.

Knuckles had been thrown straight into a pillar, breaking it. Obviously, his last attack had no effect. Metal Knuckles had easily blocked it, and then threw him into the pillar. Before Knuckles could decide his next move, the pillar had started to fall over him. With both arms, Knuckles grabbed the pillar. Even with his power, the pillar was heavy, he would have to throw it away soon, or it would crush him. Knuckles noticed the approaching figure of Metal and threw the pillar right at it. To his surprise, Metal Knuckles easily caught it and effortlessly broke it apart. Before the robot had used its next attack, Knuckles already body slammed it and finished the attack with a large punch to the torso. As Metal Knuckles stood up, there was damage that could finally be seen. Metal Knuckles' torso had been bent inwards, with two small holes showing where Knuckles spiked fists hit. But the robot was far from done, and quickly charged at Knuckles, who raised his fists up for defense. Metal slammed into his counterpart, who quickly pushed back, kicking it in the head. Metal Knuckles was sent back by the attack and rose up to its feet, only to see Knuckles throw a strong punch right in its face, knocking it down once again. Knuckles would do anything to protect the Master Emerald, and no one was going to stop him. It was time for Metal Knuckles to employ a new tactic.

Sonic found himself hanging upside down as Metal Sonic had grabbed his leg in the air. It had seemed that no matter what attack Sonic used, his metal double had been able to counter it. Sonic was thrown high into the air, while Metal Sonic raised high above him, delivering a kick right at Sonics stomach knocking him down to the ground. Sonic slowly stood up as his counterpart descended to the ground, still unimpressed.

"How?" Sonic asked. "How do you stop every attack I use?"

"It's simple Sonic. All those years where you had defeated me, I studied you. I observed how you did things, how you would react to them, and what your next move would be. I have studied so much; you could say I know you better than you do." Metal Sonic said triumphantly, apparently proud of his achievement. Sonic had tried to stand up straight, but was kicked down by Metal. "It's over Sonic, I've won" Metal Sonic said menacingly as he prepared to deal the final blow.

Suddenly a blue bolt quickly whizzed past Metals head and burst when it hit the ground. "An EMP" thought Metal. "But how?" Metal Sonic quickly turned his head around as he heard a shout. What he saw was Tails readying a cannon, which Metal believed had fire the EMP, and Amy Rose who had readied her hammer. Metal Sonic flew over to them to quickly deal with the threat. He had knocked Amy out of his way with his arm, and grabbed Tails' EMP gun, breaking it in his hands. As Metal readied his claws for a strike at Tails, he was suddenly knocked away. To Metals surprise, Sonic had knocked him out of the way.

"No one ever will get away with attacking my friends Metal, not even you" Sonic had said angrily.

Metal rose to his feet. Considering that he was now facing three targets, and was already damaged, he thought that he had enough fighting today. Metal Sonic soon flew away, not giving Sonic or his friends a chance to guess what he was about to do next.

Knuckles believed he was ready for anything the robot would throw at him, that it is until he saw the robots next move. Metal Knuckles had some sort of detonation device in its hand, and Knuckles knew that the robot was saving it, just in case. Knuckles knew he couldn't just stand there, so he charged at Metal Knuckles, hoping he could knock the detonation device out of its hand. He couldn't; as soon as he moved Metal Knuckles detonated it. All of sudden, a cliffside higher than the Master Emerald shrine exploded, and numerous rocks had rained down on the shrine. Knuckles was able to dodge each one, hoping he still had a chance to beat the robot. That was when he saw something he wished he never saw. Metal Knuckles was prying the Master Emerald off of the shrine.

Knuckles hurried toward the shrine to stop his counterpart, but it was too late. Metal Knuckles had already ripped off the Master Emerald and flew off, carrying the Master Emerald over its head. Knuckles couldn't believe it; he failed. He then remembered that the Master Emerald was the only thing keeping Angel Island in the sky, and soon enough, the island started to drop. The massive wind was more than Knuckles could take, and he grabbed onto a pillar to avoid getting sucked up by the current. In his head, Knuckles had wished that this was all a dream, and that he would wake up. Sadly, it was not. After a few more seconds, Knuckles felt a loud crash, and realized that Angel Island had now fallen into the sea.

As Sonic, Tails, and Amy were heading back to the workshop, they heard a loud crash that shook the ground around them.

"What the heck was that?" asked Sonic.

"Look Sonic!" Tails yelled as he pointed to the sea. "Angel Island has fallen into the ocean!"

Taking the Tornado, Sonic, Tails, and Amy landed on Angel Island and ran at full speed toward the Master Emerald shrine. All they found was Knuckles staring out the distance. As Sonic walked up to him, Knuckles turned around angrily, everyone gasped as they saw the slash marks on his face.

"Knuckles… What happened to you?" Amy asked, horrified.

"Metal Knuckles came here." Was all he said, as he walked toward the shrine. Sonic and the other exchanged worried looks as they followed him.

Only one person seemed to be happy that day. And that same person was dancing around with glee.

"Hohohohoh! Sonic and Knuckles have been beaten!" Shouted Eggman as he continued dancing in his base. Next to him were the figures of Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles, both with the spoils of their victories with them. Eggman had finally stopped dancing to inspect their spoils.

"Metal Sonic" he said with a glance. "Good work collecting the Chaos Emerald and slamming Sonic into the dirt at the same time" Eggman cheered with glee as he walked toward Metal Knuckles. "The Master Emerald had been retrieved and Knuckles has been thrown around like a rag doll, well done Metal Knuckles!" Eggman congratulated both robots on their successes and triumphantly claimed, "This will show those two not to question my genius!" Little did Eggman or his robots know, they were being watched.

Sonic walked up to his friends asking, "Now what, how are we going to get the Chaos Emerald and the Master Emerald back form Eggman?"

"You'll need a powerful ally" and ominous voice said. "And a good friend" as Shadow the Hedgehog appeared in front of them.


	5. Knock, knock part 1

"Shadow? What the heck are you doing here?" asked a very surprised Sonic.

"I could say the same thing to you, considering what Eggman is doing now." Shadow bluntly replied.

"What do you mean, Shadow?" asked Tails.

"Eggman has recently declared war on Station Square" Shadow stated.

Everyone nearly jumped in surprise "What?"

"Eggman has sent a large amount of his robots and the Egg Fleet to destroy the city and wipe out the inhabitants. It seems that he now has very little regard for other people's lives. He has sent a legion of robots at every exit of the city and they are now closing in on the mayor's office. If they kill the mayor, then all hope of stable peace for the time being is lost." Shadow explained.

"But, Eggman has never tried to outwardly kill people before" said Tails.

"It appears he has changed his ideals. From what intelligence G.U.N. has gathered, he truly intends to kill all of the population of Station Square" Shadow said, with a somewhat troubled look on his face. During all of this, he still kept calm and unshaken.

"If that is true, then no one is safe" stated Knuckles.

Sonic quickly replied" Well, I'm not going to sit around and wait for his next move. Let's go!" Sonic was just about to run off until Shadow shouted for him to wait.

"Why?" asked Sonic, very confused.

"At the moment, G.U.N. is currently holding the robots back, so we can deal with another problem. Deep in the Mystic Ruins, Eggman has established a base. As soon as we heard some conversations from inside the base, we knew something was up. Rouge volunteered to investigate. We got a transmission from her two hours ago along with a distress signal. I have been sent to rescue her. I came here to see if you would like to join me, as it seems that you have some grievances with the doctor" Shadow stated.

"Well, I'm in" Sonic replied. "What about you guys?" Tails happily replied, "You bet I'm in Sonic!" "Me too" added Amy. Knuckles quickly stated, "Eggman has taken the Master Emerald from me, there's no way I'll let him keep it."

Shadow nodded, "Very well. There is a transport here that will take us near the base, let's go". At that point, things got a lot more interesting.

Meanwhile, an eager Eggman was getting ready for the impending invasion. He was walking throughout his base in a happy manner, a large grin widened across his face, and his eyes were full of anticipation.

Metal Sonic!" Eggman bellowed. Metal Sonic quickly flew right into the room.

"Yes?" questioned Metal Sonic. Eggman motioned Metal to follow him into a large room, not knowing what the doctor had in store. Soon enough, they reached the room, where a massive and strange machine stood.

Behold! One of my latest, greatest creations!" Eggman shouted in a happy tone. Eggman was hoping that Metal would stand and watch in awe at his magnificent creation, but all he got was "What is that thing?" Eggman stood there, his jaw hanging, as he couldn't believe Metal didn't immediately recognize the brilliance of his machine.

"Metal, do you remember that files of the time I launched the first Death Egg?" Eggman asked.

"Of course, the files reported that when Sonic was coming to stop your plans, you had created many vehicles to stop him, none of them succeeded, and eventually the Death Egg was destroyed." Metal Sonic replied.

Eggman stated, "Of course they failed. I had soon realized why they did. They were all destroyed because they weren't strong enough alone. Now I have combined them into a creation that not even Sonic can defeat!" Eggman stated triumphantly.

Metal Sonic looked closer at the machine and he soon saw all the part of the vehicles. The wheels of the first vehicle, the toxic container of the second, the large hammer of the third, the electric spikes of the fourth, the flamethrower of the fifth, the twin drills of the sixth, the tentacle gun of the seventh, and the mirage generating bubbles of the eighth, all piled together onto a single eggmobile. Metal stared at this machine, and quickly thought of it as a waste of machinery.

"Oh sure it'll work. How can Sonic defeat a combination of a large group of machines he destroyed before?" asked Metal Sonic sarcastically.

Eggman's happy grin turned into an annoyed frown. "You don't know true genius when you see it Metal!" Eggman shouted at Metal Sonic, who wasn't even surprised that his master made such trash. "Orbot!" Orbot activated on a control panel. Eggman simply stated "Give me the results of my latest orders." Orbot replied" Backup vehicle already completed and awaiting use. Repairs for Metal Knuckles will be complete in forty minutes; all invading robots in Station Square are encountering heavy resistance, requesting reinforcements."

Eggman walked off "Tell them I'll send reinforcements in a couple of minutes. For the time being, I've got an invasion to prepare for, and I know it will happen because of you." Eggman pointed to the unconscious figure of Rouge the Bat restrained in a capsule. Eggman recalled the time when she spied on his base. After he was busy gloating about his Metal creations victories, Metal Sonic had saw Rouge the Bat hiding in the ducts. Within a few seconds she broke out of the ducts and started running, only to find a squad of heavily armored Egg Pawns in front of her. When she turned around, saw Metal Sonic standing right in front of her. He quickly grabbed her arm and electrocuted her until she fell unconscious. Eggman had remembered and grinned, knowing that no one can stop his unbeatable Metals. He chuckled to himself and waked toward the control room.

Half an hour later, the transport was reaching its destination. Everyone inside was preparing themselves for the coming battle. Everyone, except Sonic. He just sat there, thinking. While everyone else was getting ready, he couldn't concentrate on preparing. Sonic sat there, thinking the same things over and over again. The Station Square attack, the large robot, Metal Sonic winning, Angel Island falling; he just couldn't get that out of his trail of thought. Suddenly, he felt someone shaking him.

"Get ready blue hedgehog, we're almost there." Stated Shadow, as he walked toward the cockpit. Sonic looked around, Tails was getting his equipment ready, Amy was trying some practice swings with her hammer, Knuckles sat there, his focus obviously on his objective. Sonic was about to get up and stretch when Shadow came in and told everyone they had finally arrived. A large hatch on the side of the transport opened and Sonic looked out of it.

It was a very lush jungle. Most of what he saw was green, green, and more green. Except for the circular structure in a large clearing. That must be Eggmans base. It certainly had the logo on the side. It seemed Eggman was so keen on putting that logo everywhere.

"Ready Sonic?" asked Tails. Sonic nodded, finally ready to take Eggman down.

Sonic asked, "So, when are we landing?"

"We are not" Shadow replied. Sonics face twisted in a way to ask if Shadow as kidding. Shadow read this and shook his head as a response.

Knuckles broke the silence. "Why aren't we landing" Shadow explained that they were near Eggmans base, so there was a high chance that if they landed, Eggmans robots would already surround the transport. At this distance, the transport was safe, but could not get any closer.

Shadow then jumped out of the transport and landed right on the ground, ready for anything. Tails looked at Sonic, who shrugged and also jumped down. Then Knuckles jumped, then Amy, and finally Tails. As soon as they all were on the ground, the transport flew off to get into safer territory.

The heroes then ran toward the base and encountered medium resistance. Sonic took care of some of the Egg Pawns with his spin dash and Shadow destroyed many Egg Pawns with his Chaos Spear. As they were running closer toward the base, Sonic asked Shadow how many Egg Pawns he took out and said he took down seventeen. Shadow replied twenty five, to which Sonic said he cheated. With a smirk on his face, Sonic and his friends got closer and closer to the base.

Egg Pawns would jump out of trees and from behind bushes to attack the heroes in hopes of subduing them. There was no such luck; as the group would easily break through any force that went toward them. The group had reached the entrance to the base. As soon as they were going to enter, a large robot exited the building, and greeted them with laser fire. The robot was big, no bigger than the Egg Driller, but still of impressive size. It had two thick arms on each side; the arms contained several lasers around them and had a thick blade-like whip at the end. The robot had two stubby legs, whose only purpose was to keep the robot from collapsing to the ground. The heroes had dodged its shower of lasers and retaliated with several attacks of their own. Sonic quickly spin dashed into its torso, causing the robot the bend backwards. Shadow threw a Chaos Spear toward its head, breaking the armor. Amy swung her hammer right at its legs, breaking them, and sending the robot falling down. Tails had hacked into the robots circuitry, causing it to malfunction, and unable to fire its weapons. Knuckles finished it with a punch through the hole in its head from the Chaos Spear. After all this the robot collapsed on itself and was unable to move. The heroes walked toward the large entrance and confirmed that the door would not open easily.

Knuckles simply said that he will knock, and with a mighty punch, the door fell and the group entered. A large welcoming party of Egg Pawns greeted them and immediately attacked the heroes. Just like the ones before, these Egg Pawns were no match to the power of the heroes. The heroes continued running, hoping to find what would likely be the control room. They had entered a brightly lit room and blocked the door behind them. The room was filled with many generators and machine. A large table stood in the middle of the room, with a hologram projector sitting on it. On the side of the room, there was a keyboard and a large screen. Shadow stated that while this could not be the control room, it would serve as a suitable area to rest for a few minutes.

Tails spared no time as he headed toward the keyboard and started typing. Shadow was impressed. At such a young age, Tails was already able to hack into Eggmans' network and create various machines. Perhaps at some point, Shadow may ask Tails to join G.U.N. Tails had connected his PDA to the computer and had started transferring files. Just then, the blocked door was beginning to shake, which meant Eggman's forces had found them.

"Better hurry up with that hacking Tails." Sonic stated, "We don't have much time left".

"Almost done. Just a few more seconds." Said Tails, determined. He had to finish downloading data to his PDA, or they wouldn't last much longer.

Just then, the door burst and a whole flood of robots charged in. The heroes used as much power as they could to keep the robots away. But it wouldn't last long. At the rate these robots were coming in, it was a near endless amount of them.

"Done!" yelled Tails, relieved. He quickly stuffed his PDA into a pack and was ready to help his friends.

Shadow noted this and knew they were done with keeping away the robots. With his signature move of Chaos Control, all of the heroes had disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the massive amount of confused robots crashing through the room, causing a large mess. In an instant, the group had reappeared in an empty hallway. Even though Sonic had experienced Chaos Control on many occasions, it was still a shock to change his location in an instant. From his data, Tails explained that the room where Rouge was locked in was blocked and was unable to normally open. It also happened to be the same room Eggman was in.

"No problem." Knuckles stated, as he slammed the wall down, nearly shaking the entire base.

In the room, Eggman had witnessed the wall crashing down. Normally, this would not have been a problem; except for the fact that his new mixture of vehicles happened to be where the wall landed. In a matter of seconds, his most recent creation had been flattened.

"NNNNOOOOOO!" Eggman yelled, distressed that his most recent (and awesome) creation had been easily destroyed. And Sonic didn't have to fight it. Metal Sonic however, wasn't the slightest bit surprised, as if he knew that would become the machines fate. "I told you it wasn't going to last long, it was such a piece of garbage" Metal Sonic stated. If Metal Sonic could, he would have a smirk on his face.

"Hey Eggman! Where's your machine?" asked Sonic happily.

"Your standing on its crushed remains" Metal Sonic replied bluntly. Sonic looked down and realized he was indeed standing on what used to be a large vehicle. With a hint of sarcasm in his voice, Sonic said sorry to Eggman.

Eggman made a flinching yell of anger and ran toward a control panel. He quickly pressed a few button and the floor suddenly opened up. From the hole, a large centipede-like vehicle emerged. It was equipped with many legs with razors at the end, spikes on its back, and on its head a cockpit and two large mechanical pincers. Eggman had hurriedly already reached the cockpit and the machine started to move.

"You won't get out of this room alive Sonic!" Eggman yelled as the machine stated to move toward Sonic.


	6. Knock, knock part 2

"Wow Eggman. Nice toy you got there" stated Sonic, with a smug look on his face. The large machine continued inching closer toward him. Naturally, this would not deter Sonic. "Too bad I'm going to have to break it."

Sonic quickly went into a spin dash which aimed right at the robots face, which made no attempt to move out of the way. Instead, a force field activated, causing Sonic to bounce off of it harmlessly and stop right at a wall. Sonic hadn't finished yet, as he performed another spin dash right toward the robots body. The robot also countered this by spinning its body around, causing its spike-like legs to slam Sonic out of the way. Sonic landed on the ground, and deduced that a frontal assault would not ensure him victory.

Meanwhile, Tails and Amy were trying to protect themselves from Metal Sonic, who had now decided to get rid of the other annoyances while his master would deal with the main one. Metal Sonic charged at Amy, his claws outstretched, waiting to sink into the flesh of his opponent. Instead, they would make contact with a yellow hammer, which then proceeded to smack Metal in the face, sending him careening backwards. He wasn't done however, as a beam of energy started to from his torso. In a second, this energy flew right toward Amy and Tails, who narrowly dodged the blast, leaving a charred hole in its place. Amy had then quickly ran toward Metal Sonic and bashed his back with her hammer, sending him right toward Tails, who used his namesake to smack Metal in the face, leaving him open for another attack. As Amy tried to hit Metal with another attack, electricity discharged from his body and had wildly sent electricity throughout the ground, shocking his two targets. Tails had wished they would have had Knuckles' help with this.

Unfortunately, Knuckles had his own problems. Eggman had remotely dispatched a horde of Egg Pawns toward their position, and Knuckles was trying his best to keep them from getting too close to the others. It wasn't an easy task, however; as whenever Knuckles would destroy one, another would go in its place. And the Egg Pawns, which had no true care how many of each other were destroyed, kept on charging toward him, pinning him to the ground. Knuckles had had enough, and with his strength, he rose from the ground, sending the Egg Pawns who were once on him flying away. More had arrived, and this time with their lasers. The Egg Pawn horde had continuously fired at Knuckles with a shower of lasers, many of which had shot across his body, singing his skin. Unwilling to give up, Knuckles advanced toward them and had taken them out, one by one. Although he was badly hurt, Knuckles refused to be defeated, as he wouldn't let anything get in his way of recovering the Master Emerald.

While everyone else was busy with their fights, Shadow the Hedgehog had a different problem to deal with. His main mission was to rescue Rouge from Eggman, and he was determined to do so before anything else. He had found the pod Rouge was kept in. However, the pod was suspended many stories in the air. It was being lifted away by a crane controlled by Egg Pawns on a platform, and there wasn't much time left until they would take her into another part of the base.

And none of that time was wasted. Without a moment to lose, Shadow leaped into the air, performed a spin dash toward a wall, and then bounced off of it. He landed right at the other wall and started to run up it. Unfortunately, the Egg Pawns noticed Shadow, and started firing at him. This effort however, would not stop Shadow. With a spin dash, he flew straight up into the air, and landed right on the platform. In one second, two Chaos Spears had formed in his hands, and Shadow sent them right at the Egg Pawn group, creating a small explosion; and the Egg Pawns were demolished. One of the Egg Pawns heads had fallen off of the platform and was about to hit the ground.

Or hit Sonic's head. The Egg Pawns dismembered head fell right at Sonic, who flinched, allowing Eggman the opportunity to attack. Eggmans robot reared back, and then launched its head toward Sonic, knocking him into the wall. Sonic quickly got up and jumped right when the robot slammed the wall with its tail. Unfortunately for Eggman, the tail was stuck in the wall, and he had no way to get it out in time. Sonic took advantage of Eggman's mistake and pummeled the robots head with his spin attack. The blue hedgehog slid down the machines back and landed on the ground. With a grin on his face, Sonic turned around and asked Eggman if he was going to get out anytime soon. Eggman responded by screaming in a fit of rage, and the robots tail had released itself from the wall. Eggmans machine turned around and towered itself over the hedgehog, preparing another attack.

Tails found his arms caught in Metal Sonic's grasp and was about to be slammed right into the wall, until Metal Sonic had just fell right into the ground, dropping him. It turned out Amy had striked Metal in the back, causing him to let go of Tails in pain. Metal Sonic was not beaten yet, and he flew high into the air, and flew right back down toward Amy at high speed, his body sparking and then becoming covered in fire. Just as he was about to hit Amy, his targeting system malfunctioned, and Metal found himself flying straight into the ground. When Amy asked Tails what was happening to Metal Sonic, he shrugged; unable to explain why Metal had failed to hit his target. Metal staggered back up, and found himself unable to move his body at remarkable speed. His movements had slowed to a crawl; however he did not give up in his fight and charged toward his two opponents.

Shadow had tried manually operating the crane to bring Rouges pod toward the platform. However the controls broke, and the pod was still on top of the heated battle. Although it would not be easy, Shadow had an idea. He climbed up the crane and started moving toward the pod. Shadow knew if there was one slip-up, it would be a long way down. He balanced himself and walked across the crane, taking care not make any unfortunate slips. Shadow then heard a faint whistling and looked to his left; and he immediately ducked. An Egg Pawn went flying over his head and exploded when it hit the wall. It seemed that Knuckles still had to deal with the Egg Pawn horde, so Shadow would have to help him with that afterwards. Shadow had then reached Rouges pod and was about to open it safely when a stray laser flew and hit the top of the pod. The pod shattered, and the unconscious Rouge was falling to her doom. Shadow had attempted to grab her hand to save her, but he was too late. It seemed that Rouge would die, but Shadow refused to give up, and he jumped after her. With his Jet shoes, Shadow accelerated toward Rouge and caught her in his arms. Finally Rouge woke up, and upon seeing Shadow, she made a faint smile. Shadow acknowledged her consciousness, and they safely landed.

As they landed, an Egg Pawn ran toward them for an attack. However, its attack was stopped by Knuckles, who had easily punched it to the ground. Knuckles watched as Shadow lowered Rouge to the ground, hopeful that she would be alright.

"Are you hurt?" Shadow asked. Shadows mission was to rescue Rouge and bring her back safely. He said it was just a mission, but some other G.U.N. agents would say otherwise.

"I-I'm fine" Rouge replied. She put her palm on her head and explained that all she had was a minor headache, other than that, nothing was wrong. Knuckles sighed in relief to himself. Rouge may have tried stealing the Master Emerald from him on several occasions, but that didn't mean he wanted her to suffer. As Shadow helped Rouge to her feet, Knuckles asked her if the Master Emerald was in the base. She shook her head no; it seemed that Eggman transported it somewhere else.

"Stop running around so much Sonic!" Eggman demanded, as the blue hedgehog had easily escaped all of his robots attacks. Sonic replied by playfully sticking his tongue out at him, which would only enrage Eggman even more. "I'm trying to herd you into a part of the room." Eggman stated.

"Wow, first you call yourself a doctor, now you're into farming? Happy job hunting Eggman!" Sonic joked, as he jumped over another of the vehicles attacks. Eggman yelled in a fit of rage, but then paid attention to his surroundings. Knuckles and Shadow had already taken out his robot horde, and were now tending to Rouge. Metal Sonic was having trouble taking out Amy and Tails. And Sonic wouldn't stop laughing at him! Just as he was about to get back to the battle, Eggman heard a knocking on the cockpit.

"Hey Egg head! You want to take five? Or would you rather I kick your butt now?" Sonic asked with a smug look on his face. Eggman simply replied by yelling angrily and controlling the machine to shake Sonic off of the cockpit. Sonic gracefully landed on his feet, and was about to make an attack. But Eggmans vehicle had now blocked all potential passageways. Sonic was trapped. "You won't escape me this time!" Eggman bellowed.

It made no sense. Metal Sonic would usually fly at blinding speed and attack with unerring accuracy; but now he was unable to even land a punch to his enemies. Tails and Amy had no trouble dodging all of Metals attacks. He became so slow, that Amy would tauntingly stand in front of his attack second before he would land them and easily dodge them. Suddenly, Metal had figured it out. When he used his discharge of electricity, he must have sparked the wires underneath the floor, causing some of them to short-circuit. This would result in small bursts of electricity, coming up from the small holes in the floor. Metal must have stepped on them, causing a large malfunction in his internal systems. That must have been the reason!

Unfortunately for Metal Sonic, knowing that reason would not help him in the fight. Tails had quickly spun into Metal, sending him careening back; into a kick delivered by Amy. Metal was stunned, only for Tails and Amy to switch places, and Tails then swipes his tails at Metal. Metal was sent flying toward Amy, who readied her hammer.

Just as Amy was about to take swing at Metal Sonic, she whispered to him, "You had this coming, jerk!" In less than a second, Metal was sent soaring into the air by one of Amy's mightiest swings, and soon he would make impact with something, something hard.

"Looks like you have nowhere left to run hedgehog!" Eggman yelled triumphantly, believing that he had finally caught Sonic. Sonic however remained unimpressed, and continued to laugh at Eggman. Just when Eggman was about to make a deadly attack, Sonic noticed something.

"Hey Eggman, do you hear that whistling sound?" Sonic asked with a smile on his face. Eggman shifted his vehicles view just in time to see a soaring Metal Sonic fly in his direction.

"Oh, this is going to hurt…" was all Eggman said, as Metal Sonic crashed right into the machines cockpit, breaking it; and sending himself and Eggman right into the wall. Without a head or someone controlling it, the robots body limply crashed into the ground and never moved again. Eggman got up on his feet and the saw the heroes standing right in front of him in victory. In anger, Eggman called Orbot, who popped up out of the remains of the robot.

"Send all of the Egg Pawns in the base to this room! NOW!" Eggman demanded, refusing to be beaten.

"I'm sorry doctor. All available Egg Pawns have been sent to Station Square and are unable to return. Ergo, a result of your ill-planned actions." Orbot replied. Eggman responded by ordering Metal and Orbot to follow him as he took his Eggmobile, and flew out of a hatch of the ceiling in the room.

After a few seconds, an alarm blasted in the base, with the intercom stating that there was one minute and thirty seconds until the base would self-destruct. The heroes all looked at each other and nodded. They all knew that they get out of the base quickly. The group ran through the empty base, all of the Egg Pawns had disappeared. The base was shaking and pieces of the base were falling apart. The heroes only had forty seven seconds left, and a piece of debris was blocking their passage.

Two Chaos Spears had quickly formed in Shadows hands and he threw them toward the debris, destroying it. With that, the team ran through the base at high speed, taking care to dodge the falling debris and the cracking floors. Eventually they made it toward the exit, and with only ten seconds to spare. As they ran out of the base, lone Egg Pawns had jumped out of the bushes in a surprise attack, but to their surprise, the heroes ran past them.

Shadow via a communicator on his wrist contacted the transport and informed it of their position. The transport was flying right over everyone's heads with a rope hanging down for extraction. As the group was climbing the rope, shots coming from the Egg Pawn's guns were plentiful, but fortunately all of the shots did not hit their mark. The transport flew away from the pending explosion.

**3…**

**2…**

**1…**

And the base disappeared in a fiery explosion. The blast covered a large radius of the jungle, with the Egg Pawns completely destroyed, and much of the trees burnt away. The large amount of smoke coming from the ruins of the base went up so high; it could be seen from miles away.

Sonic watched the devastation from the transport and felt a little guilty. Because of him, much of the jungle was destroyed. But that result would probably be better than leaving Eggmans base untouched. Sonic turned around and slumped in his seat, watching everyone. Tails had gone to see the pilot about something, Knuckles was checking the wounds he got from the battle, Amy seemed happy that she smacked Metal Sonic so hard, and Shadow was checking to see if Rouge was alright. Sonic felt relatively pleased with what they just accomplished. They had destroyed one of Eggmans bases, they would probably get important data from what Tails downloaded, and he got on Eggmans nerves. Not bad all together.

The transport suddenly changed direction, nearly making Sonic fall out of his seat. Tails walked in and explained that he asked the pilot to take him to his workshop. Tails said he needed to see what data he had gathered from Eggmans computer. Everyone nodded in acknowledgement.

After a few minutes, the transport landed in front of Tails' workshop. As Tails was walking out, Sonic went after him.

"Hey Tails! You sure you'll be alright by yourself? I mean, Eggman could come back." Sonic asked.

"Don't worry Sonic. Amy said that she'll stay here in case something like that happens." Tails assured him. Sonic went back into the transport. After Amy went out, the transport flew off toward Station Square.

"We get to stop an invasion. This'll be fun!" Sonic exclaimed. Knuckles slowly nodded in agreement, Shadow paid no attention to Sonic's statement, and Rouge just watched. In a few minutes, they would land in the war torn city of Station Square.


	7. Unleash the Artillery

"In two minutes, we will reach our destination." Shadow stated, letting everyone prepare. Sonic did a few stretches, and he seemed completely unshaken by Eggmans attempt at a genocide.

"How can you stay happy at a time like this? When Eggmans going to kill all of the population of Station Square?" Knuckles voiced Shadow's thoughts.

With a grin on his face, Sonic shrugged and replied, "Come on! I doubt Eggman would really try to kill all of those people. Besides, we'll win in the end!" Sonic's enthusiasm seemed to know no limits.

"Maybe… But we can never truly know what the doctor is planning." Shadow said, concerned about Eggmans new method of controlling the world. Whenever Eggman would try to take over, he would never risk the lives of innocent people. This time looked different, and Shadow had a feeling that it was all the beginning of something big.

Sonic turned to Knuckles, "Hey, if you got a problem with how I'm acting, why did you nod when I said it would be fun?" Knuckles closed his eyes and sat down on his seat.

"I didn't want you to feel too lonely, being the only one who finds this fun." Knuckles stated flatly, with his voice showing what seemed to be some hints of spite. Sonic smirked at this and said that Knuckles needs to learn to chill out, nearly angering the already irritated echidna. Before a fight could ensue, Shadow stepped in and took the role of the peacemaker.

"Let's just focus on the invasion, okay?" Shadow asked, not wishing for a distraction from their mission. Sonic and Knuckles nodded, and they both stayed at their seats.

Sonic looked out the window and stated, "Hey everyone, we reached Station Square. Wow, Eggman really did a number on this place." Everyone else looked out the window and not one of them disagreed. Station Square was in shambles. The roads were cracked, random cars were broken, several craters in the ground, and smoke coming from all over the city.

In a few seconds, the transport had landed. The hatch opened, with Sonic, knuckles and Shadow stepping out. Almost immediately, the transport lifted off and flew toward Central City.

Sonic looked back, confused. "Rouge's not coming with us?" he asked.

Shadow shook his head no. "G.U.N wishes to know what had happened to Rouge during her time at the base. Besides, she's in no condition to come out to a warzone like this" He explained. Both Sonic and Knuckles understood and continued walking toward the streets. As they were walking, all was suspiciously quiet, which was strange considering Eggman was supposed to be invading. No robots, no G.U.N soldiers, no people screaming for help. If it wasn't for the damage, you would think everything was fine.

That is until a horde of robots jumped out from several buildings, ready to destroy anything in their path.

"An ambush? Big surprise." Sonic stated as he easily jumped over a robots attack. Sonic started his homing attack and bounced off of the multitude of robots as they fell to the ground. Knuckles would then sweep them off of the ground and send them crashing right back into the buildings they jumped out from. Meanwhile, Shadow would form Chaos Spears in his hands and hurl them at the attacking robots, sending them flying. Within a matter of seconds, the robot horde was decimated into scrap metal.

"Nothing to it!" Sonic said smugly as he looked to his friends. Shadow paid him no attention and Knuckles was busy looking at the devastation from the attack. Sonic nearly hung his head down when he realized they weren't listening to him.

With no other words, the three heroes ran deeper into the ruined city.

Meanwhile, an enraged man took out his anger on his own belongings, yelling incoherent sentences the no one, not even he could understand. It turns out the man was Dr. Eggman, who had just recently suffered a loss from Sonic and his friends.

"Arrgh! It's not fair! How could I lose to one pesky little hedgehog? IT'S JUST NOT FAIR!" bellowed Eggman, who had decided to take his rage out on his belongings by thrashing and flailing his arms wildly about. Because of his violent ranting, most of the room was in shambles, unable to stand against his explosive anger.

He wasn't alone however. He was with two of his own creations who were watching him. One was watching in confusion, and the other was watching with some form of amusement. These two being were Orbot and Metal Sonic, respectively. Metal Sonic still had some dents in his armor, due to the earlier battle that day. Metal had suffered an attack that he would not soon forget. But it did not matter to him, as he was watching quite an interesting show. It wasn't until Orbot spoke up that the mad doctor stopped his fruitless rage.

"Sir, if I may. If you unleash your anger upon your own equipment, you will only destroy that equipment, rendering it useless. I suggest that you find a more proactive way to vent your anger, such as anger management classes, or…" Orbot didn't get to finish, as Eggman quickly lost patience and directed his temper toward the small robot.

"SHUT UP! I don't need someone like you telling me how to solve my problems!" Eggman screamed at Orbot, and Metal Sonic decided to do something to stop the doctor before he mangled the little robot. In a second, Metal speedily flew himself in between Eggman and Orbot.

"Although Orbot has stated it in a form that you have a strong disliking to, that does not mean that he has made an error. I believe that you may direct you rage toward more useful way, such as you imagination toward robot designs." As Metal stood in front of Eggman, for a second, he thought Eggman would try to disassemble him. Instead, Eggman sighed and went back to his ruined desk.

"I guess you're right Metal. It's just I can't believe I lost, and I didn't even get to use my new creation." Eggman complained. Metal couldn't believe that his master was still dwelling on that creation. It was a mechanical monstrosity that mostly took up space. Orbot whispered and thank you toward Metal, who shrugged it off. It wasn't because Metal Sonic really cared about Orbot; it was just that Eggman would probably make him clean up Orbots parts.

Just before anyone could say any more words, the doors opened and a small yellow and black robot burst into the room. Metal Sonic immediately recognized it as Cubot, who was often considered Orbots counterpart. Cubot was not a very bright robot, and was rather lazy. But that wasn't the most irritating part about him.

"HEY BOSS!" Cubot yelled right in front of his master's face with his annoying voice. Eggman nearly fell off of his chair from the sound of Cubots yelling. As the doctor was getting up from the ground, Cubot was bouncing on his desk, eagerly waiting to deliver some news.

"What. Is. It?" Eggman asked, with severe impatience and anger in his voice. He had finally managed to lift himself off of the floor. It wouldn't be long until they would all hear Cubot's irritating voice again.

"Sonic and some guys went into Station Square, just as you thought they would." Cubot said, with a hint of excitement in his voice. Indeed Eggman showed some excitement as he jumped up in glee and headed straight toward Metal.

"Ah, just as I calculated. Sonic and his friends have no idea of what's to come. Metal Sonic you shall headed toward G.U.N.'s headquarters and infiltrate it. There you should find a Chaos Emerald. Bring it back to me." Eggman ordered. Metal Sonic was a bit surprised.

"Perhaps I should head to repairs and recharge. After all, my body is damaged." Metal stated, believing he should be in top condition for such an attack. Eggman shook his head.

"You shall have your repairs **when** you retrieve the Chaos Emerald. There is no acceptance for failure. Understand?" Metal shook his head yes.

"What of Station Square's mayor? Should our units dispose of him?" Orbot asked. Eggman frowned and went back to his desk.

"I do not need to waste my time killing off that bumbling oaf. The entire attack is just a distraction so Metal should have no trouble with his mission." Eggman explained as he pressed a button and a holographic screen went up.

"It will all go according to plan…"

Sonic had just narrowly dodged an attack. He and Knuckles had taken on a large group of robots while Shadow intercepted another group. This group of Egg Pawns was built far more different than the ones Sonic had faced before. Most had a chainsaw-like blade on one arm with a rotating gun on the other. This combination made these Egg Pawns extremely difficult to defeat without getting injured.

Knuckles had dodged a blade lunge aimed straight for his head. Had he reacted a second later, the blade would have burrowed directly into his face. Knuckles grabbed the arm, and ripped it out of the Egg Pawns socket. Suddenly, in a change of tactics, Knuckles used the severed arm and smacked the Egg Pawn with it. Soon, he did the same thing with the rest. Sonic stopped and watched, his jaw wide open. Soon, all the Egg Pawns were crushed by their allies arm.

"Well… That was different." Sonic said, his jaw still hanging. Knuckles heard this and smirked, knowing what he did would make the hedgehog stop in his tracks.

Unfortunately, one of the Egg Fleet's ships came into view, and immediately started firing at them. Sonic and Knuckles put immense effort not to get obliterated by the ships cannons. Shadow would join them, while yelling into a com link in a watch.

"Where is the blasted air support?"

"Zzzt…can't get zzzt… through zzzt…" That was all there was for an answer. Shadow sighed to himself, he knew they were on their own. But it seems like they won't be dodging these shots for much longer.

Suddenly several missiles fired up from a rooftop and hit the ship, rocking it back and forth. Another pair of missiles was fired again and hit the hull of the ship, creating a hole. A red blur jumped from the rooftops and into the hole. From that point, several explosions could be heard, the ship swaying violently until it exploded. The red blur safely jumped out just in time and landed in front to the heroes.

That was when the three heroes could see it better. It was much taller than all of them. It had red armor gleaming in the sunlight, metallic silver claws on it hands, and a yellow head with two glowing red eyes. Only one being could match that description.

E-123 Omega.

"TARGET ELIMINATED. UNKNOWN BEINGS DETECTED. SCANNING. TRIO CONTAINS SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG. GROUP CONSIDERED FRIENDLY." Omega stated, his voice as robotic and monotonous as ever, but if one listens carefully, they could hear some part of a personality.

"Hello Omega" Shadow warmly greeted him. Shadow and Omega were two members of Team Dark. Over time, Shadow formed a great fondness of the robot, up to the point he considered Omega his friend.

"LARGE AMOUNT OF EGGMAN EMPIRE FORCES IN THIS AREA. THEY MUST ALL BE DESTROYED."

"That is similar to our objective here. Perhaps we can work together." Shadow asked.

"PROPOSAL OF ALLIANCE ACCEPTABLE."

"Good."

Knuckles grew tired of waiting, he knew that the longer they wait, the more difficult it would be to get into the city. Like before, all Knuckles really wanted was to retrieve the Master Emerald, but he wasn't going to ignore a cry for help.

The group ran into the city districts, hoping not to run into any more interference.

Their hopes were ignored, as a large squad of Egg Pawns charged toward them with the intent to kill being the only thing on their minds. Omega however seemed overjoyed; he was always eager to destroy more robots.

Metal Sonic flew over Central City, noting how easy it was to go through undetected. Normally, one person would just have to notice him, and an entire squad of G.U.N. soldiers would aim their rifles toward him. But the city streets were deserted. Everyone was in their homes watching their TV's for news about the invasion, and every soldier was trying to prevent the invasion.

Metal gained speed and lowered his altitude, blasting through the city at high speeds. The location of G.U.N. headquarters downloaded clearly into his memory banks, and he would get there in less than a minute.

Although Metal Sonic had no doubt of his capabilities, he couldn't help but wonder how he would fare in his damaged state against some of the governments highly trained soldiers, in a building that was crawling with them. Metal shook off that thought, knowing it would do him no good. He was Doctor Eggman's most powerful creation, and nothing could stop him.

Meanwhile, Rouge was struggling to get to the control room. After Metal Sonics electrical attack and the near fatal fall, she was surprised she didn't immediately go to get some rest. But she had orders, and she was supposed to follow them.

The doors slid open as she finally reached the room. The G.U.N. Commander had been waiting for her patiently, so she decided not to keep him waiting.

"Commander."

He slowly turned around and noticed Rouge had already entered the room. He visibly looked as though he knew she was there, but Rouge could see in his eyes the he was indeed surprised.

"I have been expecting you."

"Well, I'm here."

"Any information regarding your infiltration of the base?"

Rouge cringed. The Commander had gotten straight to the point. He didn't even ask if she was alright. She knew he cared, but he needed that information in order to keep millions of lives safe.

"I wasn't able to get much. All I know is that Eggman has some secret plan, so important that I had trouble just to get through a lengthy password system. I tried getting in further, but his system blocked me."

The Commander nodded.

"Continue."

"Afterward I tried spying on the doctor himself while he was with his two robots, but I had been spotted and I was captured."

"Very well, we shall put an even greater effort into discovering what the doctor had planned."

Rouge sighed and walked toward the door.

"At least he hasn't tried invading this base."

A large explosion occurred somewhere in the lower levels of the base. The shockwave was so immense that it nearly knocked Rouge and the Commander off their feet. The alarms immediately blared, and the base was commencing a lockdown procedure.

"Then again, I could be wrong."

The robot squad had barely been taken down. It had proved to be far more difficult than expected. The Egg Pawns armor was tougher, their weapons stronger, and even when their limbs were removed, they continued their assault. It almost took the entire group just to destroy one.

"Man, this could go on forever!" Sonic exclaimed.

"MOVE ASIDE."

Sonic got out of the way as Omega stepped forward. The rampaging Egg Pawns charged at him with full speed. Omega raised his arms forward which opened up, revealing a large assortment of weaponry. Omegas arms brightened with light as he fired all his weapons. Within moments, all that remained was a crater. Sonic and Knuckles stared with awe as Omega retracted his weapons.

"Well… That works."

"Do you see that light?" Shadow pointed toward the sky. There was a faint light pointing toward the Egg Fleet that seemed to be coming from a rooftop.

"Think something important is going on there?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic replied. "Couldn't hurt to check it out."

Metal Sonic grew increasingly annoyed. If it wasn't the blaring alarm, or the constant G.U.N. soldiers, or every hallway sealing itself, it was the annoying chatter on the intercom. Metal had torn through every locked door in his search for the Chaos Emerald. Every time a soldier would see him, they would get the idea that he was an easy target; but as soon as Metal destroyed their guns, they would run off.

Eventually, after destroying a heavily armored door, Metal Sonic had finally reached the Chaos Emerald, which was locked in a glass container. Metal easily broke the glass with his metal fist and took the Chaos Emerald. As soon as he started walking off, a familiar voice brought itself up.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?"

Metal turned around, to see Rouge the Bat flying right over the broken container. Metal quickly thought of her to be nothing more than another annoyance. Before he could say anything, she spoke up.

"If it wasn't for the noisy entrance, you would have set off every alarm and defense in this room."

"Please, G.U.N.s idea of a stable defense network is a bucket of water on top of every door."

Rouge laughed sarcastically.

"Funny… I owe for beating me up like this."

"Trust me, this won't take long."

With that, Metal Sonic lunged forward, his claws aimed straight at Rouges heart. She ducked under him at the last second and delivered a kick to his torso. Metal cringed and sent a punch toward her face, which she also dodged.

Rouge flew up toward the ceiling of the room and dropped down spinning. Metal curled his arms together, catching Rouge by her feet, and threw her across the room.

Rouge's back met with a hard concrete wall, which sent immense pain toward her spine. She could barely get up and watched as Metal Sonic walked toward her, with the intent to kill.

As the four heroes jumped onto the roof, they found what they were looking for. A large machine relaying the beam of light toward the Egg Fleet, which kept on flying closer. That must mean that the Egg Fleet was being remote-controlled. At the base of the machine stood a lone blue Egg Pawn. This Egg Pawn had thick armor, blades across his arms and a strange backpack-like attachment. It obviously did not notice them.

"Soon, victory shall be at hand. Once the fleet reaches here, they will level the city, and it shall become a new glorious base for my master!" The Egg Pawn said to itself, it seemed to be the commander of the attack.

"Sorry to interrupt your gloating, but we have a city to save." Sonic interrupted as his friends readied themselves. The Egg Pawn turned over and nearly fell down in surprise. Quickly, it regained its composure and pressed a button on its arm, a light blue bubble generated around it.

"If I defeat Sonic the Hedgehog, I just know I will get a promotion." The robot stated with glee. Sonic spin dashed toward it but bounced off the shield. Shadow tried throwing a Chaos Spear, but the same result happened. The Egg Pawn laughed.

"Your weak attacks are no match for my shield!"

Then it started sending attacks of its own. It charged toward Knuckles, the bulk of it body knocking him across the roof. It fired a laser from its arm toward Shadow, who narrowly dodged it. Then it ran toward Sonic, its blades extended. However it was stopped by a series of explosions that coated it. Omega had sent a barrage of missiles toward it.

As soon as the smoke cleared, the shield around the Egg Pawn dissipated, and the robot panicked.

"What? No! My shield couldn't have been destroyed! Impossible!"

Sonic took this chance to spin dash into the Egg Pawn, slicing it in half. Sonic grinned and walked toward the machine, as did the others. At first they didn't know how to disable it, but Knuckles provided the answer by pushing off the rooftop and sending it crashing to the ground, destroying it.

The Egg Fleet stopped in its tracks and just floated in the air. Every Egg Pawn that had been pressing on their attack now fired and wandered aimlessly, unable to figure out what to do.

Knuckles shrugged, "Well, that worked."

Rouge tried to limp herself up, but knew it was no use. She knew Metal would just push her back down, and then kill her. She then noticed off the corner of her eye a door opening, with a numerous amount of soldiers running out of it.

Rouge grinned and asked, "Hey Metal Sonic, remember where we are?" She pointed behind him. Metal turned around and noticed G.U.N. soldiers with their rifles pointed at him. He was about to attack them when he had a transmission from Eggman.

_Metal Sonic. The attack has been repelled. Get the Chaos Emerald and get out of there now!_ Metal decided that the best choice would be to retreat, or G.U.N. would send all of its military might toward him. Rouge had finally been able to stand up.

Metal turned toward her.

"You are lucky, for I have better things to do than to tear apart this base. Chaos Control!"

In a bright flash of light, Metal had disappeared, with nothing left behind. Rouge nearly fell back down, when a soldier helped her stand.

"Please help me to my room."

The soldier nodded and helped her walk.

Back in Station Square, everything was getting better. Omega decided to destroy any leftover robots, and the Egg Fleet wasn't attacking. Just before Sonic suggested that they attack the fleet, a bright light shined from it. Seconds later, the same light shined, enveloping the Egg Fleet, and it disappeared.

Sonic and Knuckles were taken back by surprise. Shadow realized that it was Chaos Control, but had no idea what caused it.

"Now what?' Sonic asked.

"I will go back to headquarters, to see what has happened. Meanwhile, you should head back over to Tails' worskshop, see what he uncovered." With that, Shadow ran toward Central City.

Sonic and Knuckles nodded to each other, hoping the train could still take them to the Mystic Ruins.

Meanwhile, an Eggman Empire airship was under pursuit from a zeppelin. No matter what turns and tricks the ship would perform, the zeppelin would maintain its steady pursuit. Soon the airship would be chased straight toward a mountain, where it had not time to turn and crashed, the zeppelin stopping in front of it.

In the cockpit of the zeppelin stood three beings. The one at the wheel of the ship grinned and walked toward the door, with the other two following after him.


	8. Robots, Extreme Gear, and an Emerald

"What do you mean the train's not going?" Sonic exclaimed.

Unfortunately, Sonic and Knuckles' luck were not high today. Because of the invasion, all train services had been delayed. The next train would probably leave after a few days had passed.

"Where have you been the past few hours? You didn't see the robots rampaging through here earlier? With this damage, there's no way the train's going to be here soon." The train conductor answered with a snort.

"Fine, I'm the fastest thing alive, I only wanted to take the train so I could sit down." Sonic stated as he left the hallway.

Sonic walked to Knuckles who was standing in the middle of the station. Knuckles seemed to know what Sonic was going to say.

"We can't go?"

"Not a chance."

"Can't you just run to the Mystic Ruins, and get Tails to take the Tornado over here for me?"

"I'm beat. With all this going on, I haven't had any time for rest."

Sonic and Knuckles walked out of the station. Everyone had finally gone out of hiding and were already started to repair everything that was damaged. But it would take them weeks before everything became the way it was before. They then heard a noise and looked up.

Tails and the Tornado were heading for a clearing to land. Sonic had raised his arm so Tails would notice them. Maybe their luck was changing after all.

"Just a few more adjustments, Metal Knuckles. And soon you will have your new personality ready to go."

Back in his base, Dr. Eggman had decided to improve on Metal Knuckles by giving him a personality. Orbot was overseeing the development, while Cubot was keeping himself occupied in a corner.

"Hand me that screwdriver, will you Orbot?"

"Of course sir."

Orbot handed the screw driver toward Eggman, who was working on a deactivated Metal Knuckles. Hours earlier, Eggman was tearing apart his room, and now he was as calm as ever.

"There now, let's see how it's like."

Metal Knuckles was then activated and rose up from the table.

"Heeeyy boss! It's great to see ya!" Metal spoke in an irriating voice.

Eggman shook his head and grabbed his screwdriver.

"Not that one. How about this one?"

"ACTIVATION COMPLETE. SCANNING AREA. AWAITING ORDERS."

Cubot rose up and curiously asked Eggman, "Kind of retro, isn't it boss?"

"Hrrrmm, agreed." Eggman took his screwdriver and tried again.

"This one?"

"I must protect the Master Egg."

Eggman nearly jumped up in surprise to that one. With a shocked voice he exclaimed, "Definitely not this one."

The door opened, revealing Metal Sonic with a Chaos Emerald in his hand. As Metal walked through the room, he tossed the Chaos Emerald to Eggman, who stumbled to catch it.

"Here is the Chaos Emerald, master. I'm now going for the repairs and recharge that I deserve. You might want to tell your other robots not to bother me, or they may never come back."

With that, Metal Sonic had exited through another door, leaving Eggman unsurprised, Orbot frightened, and Cubot completely unaware of the situation. Eggman shook his head and turned back, placing the Chaos Emerald on his desk.

"Ah Metal Sonic. You are among the finest of my creations, if only you did not have such an attitude problem."

Orbot straightened up. With worry in his voice, he stated "Sir, there seems to be a problem with one of our airships. It is carrying a Chaos Emerald, and is under attack from a zeppelin. Its appearance matches that of the Babylon Rogues."

Eggman looked toward Orbot.

"The Babylon Rogues, after my Chaos Emerald? Well, we can't have that, can we? I need to send a robot, but most of them are in far places on the world, who can I send from here?"

Eggman looked around the room to see any candidates. He looked at the door, hoping for Metal Sonic. But then he remembered the damage Metal was in, and Metal Sonic would not react well to being sent on another mission so soon.

Eggman saw Orbot, and knew that Orbot would definitely not be able to defeat the Rogues, and would most likely get turned into scrap metal. He then looked at Cubot, who was upside-down playing with apparently nothing. Eggman knew definitely not to send Cubot.

Then his eyes rested on Metal Knuckles. Aside from his personality, Metal Knuckles had all the qualities that were needed to defeat the Babylon Rogues. Eggman rushed through Metals new personality and figured this new one would have to do. Metal Knuckles stood up and looked toward Eggman.

"Yes sir?"

"One of my airships carrying a Chaos Emerald important to my plans is being attacked. Retrieve it and defeat the ones responsible for the attack."

Metal Knuckles nodded and rushed out the door. Eggman watched with a proud look on his face, as he hoped Metal Knuckles would do well.

Eggman then took a seat at his desk.

"Now, about that workshop…"

The three figures walked toward the hangar of their zeppelin. The middle one, Jet the Hawk, reached for his Extreme Gear, the Type-J. Another figure, Storm the Albatross, reached for his Type-S. When the third figure, Wave the Swallow, reached for her Extreme Gear, Jet stopped her.

"Sorry Wave. We need you to stay in the cockpit in case we have to get out of here fast" Jet stated.

Wave nodded her head, and walked back. Jet looked toward Storm, who happily nodded indicating he was ready. The hangar door opened, and with a cocky laugh, Jet and Storm took off on their Extreme Gear.

As soon as they left the hangar, they immediately started dropping. Their gear had no fly mechanisms, so they could only drop. However, the airship was underneath them, so they wouldn't plummet to their deaths. As soon as they landed, the cannons from the airship immediately started firing.

Jet's speed with his extreme gear allowed him to dodge and speed past any of the resulting explosions from the shots. He effortlessly dodged another shot as he boosted toward the airships hangar. Storm however, wasn't attempting to dodge; instead he took the cannons head on. With his strength, he would shatter the cannons apart with his punches.

Both Jet and Storm reached the hangar, which was surprisingly empty. The two of them wasted no time as they sped through the doors, which were undergoing lockdown. Normally, both of them would speed through the doors before they would close, but when they weren't fast enough, Storm's power came in handy.

Soon, they reached a room which had a strange container floating in the middle of a machine. Jet stepped off his gear and examined it, and noticed a computer off to the right, which probably controlled the hovering. Jet knew Storm's skills would come in handy.

"Storm, take care of that computer would you?"

"Yes, boss."

Storm rarely refused an order, and on the times he would, it was often because he didn't understand it. But this order was perfectly clear. Smash the computer. So Storm did so; with one mighty swing of his arm, the computer was crushed.

The container ceased to hover. Jet grabbed it before it fell to the ground. Opening the device, Jet came across a Chaos Emerald. He remembered their power, as they had been able to bring Babylon Garden from the ground. More importantly, this gem was priceless, and a great find for any worthy treasure hunter. Jet put the Emerald back into the container and kept it in his hand as he and Storm sped off.

Strangely, they came across no resistance getting toward the hangar. Perhaps Eggman had gotten so cheap he wouldn't protect his own ships. It didn't matter anyway; they got the gem, so they were golden. Upon reaching the top of the ship, both Jet and Storm hopped off their gear.

"Hey Wave, your scanners were right, they did have a Chaos Emerald, but it's ours now!" Jet called out to his ship. Wave acknowledged this, as the zeppelin neared toward the airship to pick up Jet and Storm.

The Tornado had finally landed at the workshop. Although it only took minutes, it felt like hours. Along the way, Tails said that he had found some very important information from the data he hacked. As soon as they walked through the front door, Sonic was knocked down by a worried Amy.

"Sonic! Are you alright! Are you hurt? What happened at Station Square!"

"I'm fine, Amy. Just please get off of me and I'll tell you all about it."

Amy got off of Sonic, who slowly lifted himself back up. So much fighting and no rest took its toll on the blue hedgehog, as he was getting more tired every second. Eventually, Sonic slumped onto Tails' couch and explained what happened.

"When we got there, we already had a welcoming party. We took them down and went into the city. Thing got a little more difficult, but we had some backup. We took down the robot that was behind the attack and all was well."

Tails and Amy understood the situation, and then Tails decided to explain what he found.

"The data that I have found had been corrupted upon my hacking so I wasn't able to get it all. But from what I did get, I pieced together that Eggman is planning something big, and he needs the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald to do it."

"Anything else besides the obvious?" Knuckles asked.

"No, it was too corrupted to get any further. But while you were gone, I was able to make a new Emerald radar. And it seem's that there is a Chaos Emerald in a forest a few miles south of here."

"Well, we won't get it just standing here. Tails, Knuckles let's go."

"What about me, Sonic?"

"Amy, we need you to stay here, just in case Eggman decides to pay a visit. But you can come with us next time, okay?"

"Fine."

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles left the workshop and hopped into the Tornado, which took off seconds later.

As Amy was about to relax on the couch, she heard knocking on the door.

""Who could be here at this hour?"

A few minutes into the flight, the group was already over the forest. They saw nothing unusual, until they saw to ships floating underneath them.

"Hey Sonic, isn't that Jet?"

"Looks like it. Wait, what's that in his hand?"

"Sonic, the radar shows the emerald is in that container in Jet's hand!"

Sonic shifted his body from the biplanes wings to the landing gear, holding himself upside-down. Jet had raised the container in triumph of his victory, but before he could notice, the Tornado was directly over him. Before Jet could react, Sonic grabbed the container from his hand as the plane flew off.

"SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!"

Wave noticed the thievery of the gem from the cockpit and activated a turret on the side of the zeppelin. With one well aimed shot, Wave fired. The shot hit the biplane's wing causing it to come crashing down to the ground. Seeing this, Wave ran toward the hangar, grabbed her Extreme Gear, grabbed a pack full of her mines and dynamite, and flew to Jet.

Luckily, Tails was able to make a landing smooth enough for all three of them to get out of. The planes damage was minimal, and it would take Tails a small amount of time to repair.

There was no time, for the Babylon Rogues were on them in a second. The Rogues would circle around them on their gear, minimizing their chances for escape. So, they would have to stand and fight. Sonic tried to spin dash into Jet, but he dodged, and Sonic went right into one of Storm's punches. Knuckles went in for punch on Storm, but Jet got in the way, shifting his gear so Knuckles would slam right into it.

Tails, who was holding the container, was being circled by Wave. Too focused on her taunts, Tails was unable to see Jet coming right toward him. Jet slammed into Tails, knocking him down, and grabbed the container. After that, the Rogues sped away from the heroes, having already gotten their prize.

"See ya later, losers!" Jet cackled as they escaped deeper into the forest.

Sonic was the first to get up, and encouraged his friends to get up, as they would not let the Babylon Rogues keep the Chaos Emerald. Sonic then grabbed his friends' arms and ran off to catch up with Jet.

The Rogues decided to slow down, after having boosted their way through the thick parts of the forest. Jet could not stop his gloating.

"I can't believe Sonic and his friends couldn't stop us! We beat them so easily!"

"Buh-Boss?"

"Not now Storm. Seriously, it was too easy!"

"Boss?"

"Wait a sec Storm! Can't you see I'm busy gloating?"

"But boss! What is that?"

Storm pointed to the air. Jet and Wave would look up, but see nothing at first. Soon they saw some strange red object flying right toward them. They tried speeding up to dodge, but they could not avoid its descent. The object was eventually close enough for them to see its details.

"What is th-"

Jet never got to finish his question. The object crashed right at the Babylon Rogues, knocking them off of their gear, and creating a huge cloud of smoke. The heroes noticed this cloud and ran toward it.

Jet coughed as he tried to get up from the ground, the smoke around him clearing. As soon as he could see clearly, he scrambled for the container, which fell out of his hand.

"Wh-Where is it? Where's the Emerald? I had it in my hand just a second ago!"

"Where it belongs."

Jet turned back, and noticed a red robot emerge from a shroud of smoke. Its green eyes were focused slowly on him, and it walked slowly and menacingly toward him. He noticed the container in the robots claws. Jet didn't care who the robot was, he wanted his Emerald back.

As the other Rogues started to get up, the robot started laughing, causing them to look at it with shocked expressions.

"So you are the legendary Babylon Rogues my master informed me about. You don't seem so legendary to me. More like pathetic."

Jet rose up to his feet and angrily spat back.

"Who are you calling pathetic? We're stronger than you, that's for sure. Who are you to call us pathetic?"

"Metal Knuckles!"

The answer did not come from the robot itself, rather from an enraged echidna with his friends who was coming up from behind. Knuckles ran toward the robots, charging a punch. The punch never connected, as the robot evaded the attack and delivered a kick to Knuckles' side, knocking him down.

"Metal Knuckles?"

Sonic decided to explain the robot to the confused Rogues.

"He's a robot made by Eggman. We faced him once in a race, where he almost beat us by taking all of the shortcuts. He was defeated in the end, and we thought we'd never see him again. Knuckles fought him recently, and he stole the Master Emerald."

"Master Emerald?"

Before Sonic could also explain that, Metal Knuckles sent out a growl of impatience, indicating he would not sit and listen to them talk all day. Knuckles, having gotten up, took a fighting stance, which Sonic and Tails did so afterward. The Babylon Rogues, still confused, did nothing.

Metal Knuckles took advantage of this unawareness and flew right in between them. Team Sonic had wasted no time, as they followed in pursuit of the robot. The Rogues decided to follow, to get the Chaos Emerald for themselves.

Metal Knuckles had an early lead, but Sonic was able to catch up in not time. With a spin dash, Sonic made contact with the robots head. Metal didn't even flinch, as he rotated and swatted Sonic away with his free arm. Storm sped up to him, and tried to knock him away with his board. Storm was too overconfident, as Metal Knuckles grabbed the Gear with his claws and shook Storm off of it.

Throwing the Extreme Gear away, Metal noticed Knuckles gliding above him. Knuckles tried to slam Metal into the ground, but the robot slowed down, causing Knuckles to crash into the dirt. Tails also tried to attack Metal with his tails, but instead got a kick to the torso.

Sonic recovered from the blow and ran over to Jet, who was still maintaining his pursuit. Sonic knew if they were going to beat Metal Knuckles, they would have to work together.

"Jet! What do you say about a temporary truce to take this guy down?"

"No way hedgehog! We Rogues can beat this robot no problem!"

Jet increased the speed of his Gear to attack Metal Knuckles. Just as Jet was going in for a kick, Metal delivered a punch to his face, knocking him out of the way. Sonic would grab Jet from behind to stop his fall.

"On second thought, maybe we could work together…"

"I thought you'd see it my way."

Sonic lifted Jet back on his gear, as Storm, Knuckles and Tails would catch up.

"Okay everyone, we're teaming up against Metal Knuckles!"

Metal Knuckles also heard this announcement, and laughed to himself. _It doesn't matter what they do. This Chaos Emerald will stay mine. _In his laughter Metal did not notice Tails holding Sonic in the air while flying. Tails threw Sonic, who spin dashed around Metal Knuckles, hitting him in the torso.

Metal was launched into the air, while Storm threw Knuckles up, who would deliver an uppercut, sending Metal Knuckles flying even higher. The robot would start to fall, and unable to start his jet engine, went right into another attack. Jet would circle the robot at high speeds, creating a small twister. Sonic would then use his spin dash, knocking Metal headfirst into the ground.

Metal Knuckles had difficulty standing up, and realized he dropped the container. Jet picked it up, smirking at Metal Knuckles' defeat. Sonic and his team were rejoicing their teamwork.

"Hey Jet, nice teamwork back there. We should work together more often!"

"Heh, yeah. About that…"

Before Sonic realized it, he was kicked to the ground by Jet. Before Tails and Knuckles could react, Wave dropped a smoke bomb, allowing the Rogues to escape.

"Consider this the end of our truce Sonic!" Jet yelled as they were getting away.

"Never could trust that thief." Sonic said to himself.

As the smoke cleared, Team Sonic ran toward the direction the Babylon Rogues went, not noticing that Metal Knuckles was following them. Sonic was obviously the first one to reach the Rogues. He avoided Storm's punches and Wave's kicks and went right for Jet.

"So you decided to play me for a sucker."

"I did what I did because this gem's mine. I'm just doing whatever it takes to get me to the top!"

"You think you're on top? Try telling** him** that!"

Jet looked back to see Metal Knuckles plow through his friends. The robot sped past Tails and Knuckles, as its intent was obviously to get the Chaos Emerald. It already knocked Storm and Wave away, and was homing in on Jet.

Sonic wasn't cruel, so he wasn't going to let Metal Knuckles tear Jet to pieces. Right before Metal got a chance to strike Jet with his arm, Sonic would spin dash into the robots side. Jet sighed in relief, until his board slammed into a boulder, making Jet lose his grip on the container.

Knuckles would be the first to dive for the Emerald, then Storm, then Metal Knuckles. Everyone else would watch the duel at hand. Knuckles shoved Storm out of the way then delivered a punch to his gut. Metal would then head butt Knuckles away, and started to make a mad dash with the Chaos Emerald.

Tails would grab the container out of his hand, and flew off into the trees for a second. Everyone was just about to follow him until he flew out, and he passed the container to Sonic, who ran off. Tails and Knuckles would follow him, while the others would not stay behind. The Babylon Rogues considered Metal Knuckles the biggest threat and the robot was right behind them. Wave would look at Jet and motioned to her pack, Jet nodded, approving Wave's next move.

Wave opened her pack and threw all of the floating mines she had, all of them grouping together into one pile. Wave set a pack of dynamite, and threw it at the cluster. By the time Metal realized what was about to happen, it was too late. He flew right into the explosives as soon as they detonated, engulfing him in the resulting explosion.

The Babylon Rogues believed that was the end of the robot and sped off; little did they know that it was still standing after the smoke had cleared. Metal Knuckles would then ascend to the sky, to cut off the two groups.

Meanwhile, the two teams weren't pulling their punches. Knuckles had hopped onto Storm's Gear, both of them wrestling each other on it. Tails had latched onto Wave's arm, causing her to lose balance as she tried to shake him off. Sonic and Jet wouldn't get off each others throats. Every time Jet would push Sonic away with his board, Sonic would spin dash to catch up. And every time Sonic spun into Jet's board, he would boost to keep up.

The battles would continue until an observant Tails noticed something they would all be interested to know.

"Cliff wall!"

Everyone looked in front to notice they were heading for the wall of a cliff. The Babylon Rogues braked with their Gear as hard as they could, with heroes hanging on. Fortunately for them, they were able to stop before they hit the wall. Unfortunately for them, Metal Knuckles landed right at the wall, and made a mighty punch into the cliff side, nearly shaking it.

"Give me that Chaos Emerald now, or I'll crush you like insects!"

Just before Metal lunged at them, a large boulder collapsed on him. The strength of his punch must have knocked the boulder loose, sending it crashing down on him. Tails was the first to say something after this.

"Well, that was… ironic."

Everyone nodded their heads slowly in agreement. Just when they considered Metal Knuckles out for good, a part of the boulder cracked. Another crack appeared then another one, and another. Soon the whole boulder shattered before their eyes, revealing Metal still standing.

"Oh, come on!"

Metal Knuckles had tried to send another threat at them, but realized that no words came from him at all. He tried threatening them again, but still there was nothing. Metal figured that when the boulder crashed onto him, it scrambled some part of his circuitry, now he cannot speak.

Sonic tried to hold back his laughter when he realized Metal Knuckles couldn't speak. Metal was far from finished, as he flew toward them with his claws extended. Everyone leapt out of the way, causing the robot to fly toward a tree. He flipped, and bounced off of it, and soared toward Sonic.

The blue hedgehog had no time to react, for Metal Knuckles slammed into him, making him lose his grip on the container. Wave would quickly grab it, and toss it to Jet. The Babylon Rogues used their Gear to fly up the wall. Tails started flying up, Knuckles climbing the wall, and shortly Sonic started to run up it.

When the Rogues reached the top, they almost fell down the other side. The cliff's top was extremely small. Wave sent a signal to the zeppelin to pick them up. They looked down and braced themselves, as the heroes and Metal Knuckles were coming up fast.

Sonic signaled Tails as he ran up. Tails would grab Sonic by the arms and throw him upwards. Knuckles had reached the top, preparing to fight Storm. As soon as Metal Knuckles reached the top of the cliff, sonic spun down to the ground, hitting the robot at the back. Metal would then proceed to tumble down the cliff side.

Metal crashed down the cliff and couldn't stop. He was unable to activate his jet engine, causing him to keep falling. Metal Knuckles finally hit the ground with a crash, and after a brief struggle, was unable to get up. He was trapped.

The heroes were about to continue their fight with the Rogues until their zeppelin arrived. Using their Extreme Gear, the Babylon Rogues flew up to it, and the zeppelin took off. Sonic was still determined to get the Emerald back.

"Come on guys! We can't give up yet. We can still catch them!"

"Sonic, there's no point."

"What do you mean there's no point, Tails?"

Jet and his friends had finally reached the cockpit. Jet was as proud as ever to have finally defeated his rival.

"Yes, we won! We got the Emerald! Now let' take a look at it again, and decide what to do with it."

Jet opened the container and all joy disappeared from his face. The container was empty. Somehow, Sonic and his friends must have taken the Emerald without them noticing somehow. Jet was enraged by this situation.

"SONIC!"

"You mean you got the Chaos Emerald! How?"

"Remember when I flew into the trees? When I got in them, I took the Emerald and closed the container before anyone could notice."

"Wow, nice work there, little buddy!"

"Thanks! Now, let's get back to the Tornado and get to my workshop."

In a few minutes, the heroes had reached the biplane. Tails had finished repairing it in no time, and they were off to the workshop. When they reached the workshop, something was wrong. Smoke was coming out from the front door, and the rest of the building was damaged.

"AMY!"


	9. Sink or Swim

Sonic rushed into the workshop with worry on his face. The workshop was on fire, the door was ripped off, and there was no answer to his call. As Sonic ran into the living room, he looked around frantically, trying to see if he could find Amy. Tails and Knuckles would shortly follow him afterward.

"Whoa! Tails, where's you're fire extinguisher?" Knuckles asked.

"Over by the kitchen!"

Knuckles ran into the kitchen and came back out with the fire extinguisher in hand. Unfortunately, Tails tinkered with it earlier a little, so as soon as Knuckles turned it on, it flew out of his hands. The extinguisher was like a small missile flying around the room. Eventually, it stopped on the floor and exploded, surprisingly dousing all the fire in the workshop. Knuckles looked surprised from this result.

"Well, that was convenient." He stated.

Sonic shrugged it off and looked around for Amy; it soon became clear that she was gone. Tails had pressed a hidden button underneath his desk worriedly, and a small table lifted into view in the room with a small machine sitting on top of it. Tails sighed in relief when he saw it was still there. Sonic immediately recognized it as the machine Tails was working on earlier.

"Oh good, I was afraid Eggman got a hold of my invention. There's no telling what he could've done with it." Tails muttered to himself.

"Tails, what about your workshop; what about Amy? Aren't you worried about this?" Sonic exclaimed when he heard Tails.

"Don't worry Sonic, we'll find Amy and my workshop will be just fine."

"You sure? I never pictured you as a carpenter."

"I know someone who can fix this. The real problem is where did Amy go and how do we find her."

"I think I might know…"

Sonic and Tails looked over to Knuckles who held a letter in his hand. He motioned that it was just sitting on top of the desk and found out it was from Eggman. He gave it to Sonic, who opened it. A hologram of Eggman immediately popped up.

"Hello Sonic. You may be wondering why your friends workshop is on fire. Let's just say my robots paid it a little visit. They have already captured your little girlfriend and she is a prisoner in one of my bases. Good luck finding out which one, because if you don't, you're sunk. Hahahaha." The holographic Eggman continued to laugh until it dissipated.

"So Eggman has her in one of his bases. If only we knew which one it is."

Knuckles immediately looked up with a grin on his face.

"I think I know someone who can help us out."

Eggman sat down on his chair looking at his holographic screen. He was currently watching the status over all of his strongholds across the world. Besides the one in the Mystic Ruins that was destroyed, they were all in perfect shape. Eggman chuckled to himself.

"It has all been going according to my plan. All of my precious Chaos Emeralds are safely stored in my bases, I have the Master Emerald and there are only a few more Emeralds to go. Everything is going so well!"

Almost as if on cue, Orbot popped up from Eggmans desk bearing some bad news. As soon as the doctor saw Orbot, he knew he wasn't going to like what he would hear.

"Sorry to bother you sir, but it appears that the hedgehog and his friends have taken the Chaos Emerald from the Babylon Rogues."

"WHAT? What about Metal Knuckles? He should have been able to take the Emerald and give both those groups a headache!"

"Metal Knuckles is currently rendered immobile at the bottom of a chasm, and is unable to escape in any way."

"Ergh, send a robot to assist him and get him back here. This is unacceptable! I can't believe Metal Knuckles failed to retrieve one small Emerald! Unbelievable!"

In the middle of his little tantrum, Eggman realized an opportunity he could use and a grin slowly emerged on his face.

"This is PERFECT!"

"Forgive me sir, but I do not understand how the situation at hand is in any way perfect."

"You see Orbot, now that Sonic has defeated Metal Knuckles, he'll believe I'm not much of a threat. While that is bad for my reputation, it is good for my strategy. Sonic will underestimate me, and I will take him down!"

"I believe I understand your logic now sir, it is an impressive plan. Although one would wonder why someone with an IQ as high as yours, couldn't devise it sooner."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, sir."

Eggman looked back at the screen as an image appeared of Amy Rose trapped in a small glass box. The doctor chuckled to himself, knowing that the robots he sent to Tails' workshop had completed their mission.

"Orbot, have one of my Egg mobiles prepped for launch, and place my newest attachment on it quickly."

"Right away sir. May I ask what the reason for preparing the Eggmobile is?"

"Just going on a little trip."

Before Orbot could question Eggman any further, Metal Sonic had exited a door and stared right toward the doctor.

"I have finished my maintenance, master. I am ready for any mission you may have for me."

"Ah, Metal Sonic. Excellent timing! I have a mission for you at this minute. We're going on a trip."

Orbot looked up in anticipation.

"**We're**? Do you mean I get to go to?"

"Of course not!"

Orbot nearly deflated from that answer. The doctor never seemed to use him much in the field. He was used only once with his partner Cubot to capture an alien species known as Wisps on his master's amusement park in space, and that mission was a failure. So now Eggman had only used Orbot for things he did not want to do, including clean up broken pieces of robots, file papers neatly, and so on.

Eggman turned back to Metal Sonic, who still did not understand what his master had meant when he said 'trip'.

"Do not worry Metal Sonic, you will find out what the mission is when we start our flight."

The doctor and his robot left the room, leaving a sad Orbot to do what he wished.

"Really Knuckles? These guys are going to help us?"

"Hey, they were the best guys I thought about, they could really help us."

"Yeah, we'll see."

Knuckles knocked on the door. The heroes were at a small house near the outskirts of Central City, near the ocean. When Sonic and Tails realized who Knuckles thought about, they were less than confident. But he was able to convince them to try. After a few seconds, the door opened, revealing a hyperactive bee.

"HEY KNUCKLES! WHAT'CA DOING HERE?"

"Hello Charmy, we're here to see Vector. Mind letting us through?"

"SURE!"

The bee allowed the heroes through and showed them the way to Vector. Sonic was still unconfident about asking the Chaotix for help, considering that they weren't really the brightest bunch. Knuckles just said that they would be perfect for the job.

The group reached Vector, who was asleep at his desk. Knuckles knocked his fist on the wall to wake him up. Vector nearly fell out of the chair, but as soon as he saw the heroes, he straightened up.

"So, what can I do ya for, Team Sonic?"

"Vector, we need your detective skills to help us figure out where Amy has been taken by Eggman."

'I think we can help, but it won't be free."

"C'mon Vec! Not even for your old friend?"

"Sorry Knuckles, but we really need to pay the rent on this place."

"We'll give you five thousand rings."

Everyone looked in surprise to Sonic, who interrupted the conversation. Sonic was never the one to bargain, so this was especially surprising.

"You'll what?"

"You heard me, we'll give you five thousand rings if you help us find Eggman's base."

"You got a deal!"

Vector was ecstatic as ever from this deal, it would be just enough to pay the rent, and he might be able to scrounge up some money for other things. Without warning, Espio appeared right in front of Tails, who nearly jumped up in surprise.

"Do you have any clues as to where Eggman has her?"

"We have this letter we got from him."

Tails handed the letter to Espio, who then showed it to Vector and Charmy. In an instant, all three of them huddled up together and whispered to each other. Sonic looked back toward Knuckles in question, who answered with a shrug. Knuckles walked up to Sonic.

"Do you even have five thousand rings?"

"After all my travels, I have way more than that just lying around."

Three minutes later, the Chaotix broke from their huddle and faced the heroes.

"Well?"

"We have no idea…" Vector answered.

Team Sonic nearly fell down in shock. So much for help! That was a waste of five thousand rings. Tails then started thinking.

"Wait a minute; Eggman said if we don't find the base, then we're sunk. If you think of the word sunk, which is for water, Eggman's base might be underwater."

"Great thinking Tails!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Only, we have no idea how well defended this base is."

An imaginary light bulb lit up in Vector's head.

"We can send in Espio with you guys. Then you can pay us those rings!" Vector exclaimed.

"You fine with that Espio?" Knuckles asked.

"No problem." He calmly answered

"Great, but there's still the problem of getting underwater." Sonic stated.

"I have something that can help…"

Ten minutes later, the Tornado landed in front of the Tails' workshop. Tails led the three heroes in, and pulled a secret lever behind the couch. All of a sudden, a hole opened in the floor, and a strange pod lifted up.

"Hop in!"

After they entered the elevator, it descended down into a secret room. As the door opened, the heroes could see a moderately sized room with one part of the room filled with water, with the other part holding a steel platform, which held a strange vehicle.

"Say hello to the Sea Fox!" Tails declared proudly.

The group walked around the submarine. It was relatively small, capable of holding only one or two people. On its sides held twin engines which housed two torpedo launchers, and sported a small drill at the front.

"Looks great Tails, but how are we all going to fit in this one small sub?" Sonic asked.

"Don't worry Sonic. This may be a prototype, but it's prepared for having more passengers." Tails stated.

Tails pressed a button on a controller, and the Sea Fox began to change shape. Its shape almost doubled in size, with its engines now sporting their own small cockpits. Everyone besides Tails was dumbfounded at this.

"Well… That'll work." Knuckles said surprisingly. The heroes would all enter the Sea Fox, Tails at the front of the cockpit with Espio behind him, and Sonic and Knuckles on the engine's cockpits.

The platform that was holding the Sea Fox tilted, sending the submarine into the water, and in a few seconds, all of its systems came online. Tails, now in full control of the sub, sent it forward in hopes of locating Eggman's base. The fox still remained doubtful; the ocean was a big place. Finding one small base over miles and miles of water seemed downright impossible. But Sonic wouldn't give up, so neither should he.

An hour passed and Knuckles seemed ready to give up. He rested his head on the control panel and groan impatiently. All they saw was water, there weren't even any fish in view, and Knuckles wasn't taking it very well.

"Come on! This is taking forever, how do we find a base in this entire ocean?" Knuckles complained. Knuckles' complaining, plus being surrounded by nothing but water got on Sonic's nerves.

"Quit your whining, Knux! Unless you got a good idea, keep that mouth of yours shut!" Sonic retaliated with a snarl. Knuckles looked as if he was going to break out of his cockpit and rips Sonic's off of the Sea Fox. Espio remained calm through all of this.

"Perhaps you both should calm down before you tear apart this submarine." Espio calmly stated. To his and Tails' relief, both Sonic and Knuckles let out a loud sigh and decided to focus on the mission. The silence was abruptly stopped by a loud beeping.

"Tails, what is that?" Sonic asked.

"It's the sensors, they've picked up something huge, and it has Chaos Energy inside of it." The heroes looked through the windows; just past a small canyon was a large tower. At the top was a dome shaped into an image of Eggman's face. At the bottom was a foundation, which was riddled with searchlights.

"Stay away from those searchlights, Tails. It seems they haven't spotted us yet" ordered Espio. Tails nodded as he slowly steered the sub away from the searchlights but toward the tower. Unfortunately, the tower had sensors of its own, and an alarm blared. More searchlights activated and scanned the area wildly. Tails was unable to maneuver the submarine quick enough, and soon enough they were found.

The tower fired torpedoes from its sides which quickly homed in on the Sea Fox. Tails was able to spin the Sea Fox fast enough for the torpedoes to lose their detection. Because of that the torpedoes would just pass the submarine harmlessly. Unfortunately, one torpedo hit the side of the sub, damaging it and causing it to sway around. Tails knew that they would be able to get in quietly or safely, so they had to use a risky move. He activated the drills on the Sea Fox's front and engines and blasted toward the tower at full speed.

"You might want to hold onto something!" Tails warned the rest of the group. Knuckles was bracing himself against the control panel, Sonic had hid under his control panel, and Espio prepared himself for the collision. The Sea Fox's drills met right with the towers wall, shaking the submarine as if it was in the middle of an earthquake. When the shaking stopped, Sonic peeked up.

The Sea Fox punched a hole right through the tower, and was now in a hallway. Egg Pawns were swarming in from all directions to deal with the threat. Sonic couldn't get his cockpit to open and prepared himself for the Egg Pawns' attacks. They never came, water had seeped through the hole the submarine made and was sweeping up every Egg Pawn off of their feet. In mere moments, the entire hallways was flooded.

The collision shook the tower very hard. So hard it actually waked up Amy Rose from her unconsciousness. She looked around groggily, to see that she was tied up in a large glass box, which was suspended several stories above the floor. She briefly remembered being at Tails workshop and answer the door, as soon as she opened it, there was an explosion right in front of her, knocking her into a wall. Right before she lost consciousness, she noticed large shapes entering the workshop. Now she was here, all tied up.

Tails managed to pull the Sea Fox back from the hole it had made. The damage was pretty rough but not from the crash, from the aftermath instead. Water began filling the tower up, glass windows shattering from the pressure. The water then started seeping toward the foundation, causing the massive structure to start collapsing. Now they had to rescue Amy fast. Tails ascended the submarine until it was at the same height as the dome. There appeared to be a hangar of sorts on the side of the dome, filled with some kind of energy field.

"Guys, that hangar is our only hope of getting through to the base, the scanners suggest that the field around it can cause no damage to the sub." Tails looked back to the others listening to their opinions. They said nothing, but nodded, showing they were ready.

With a deep breath of air, Tails sent the Sea Fox toward the hangar. It passed through the energy field harmlessly as was expected, but the hangar was filled with Egg Pawns. After the submarine made a rough landing on the deck, Sonic immediately jumped out of his cockpit with Knuckles behind him. In a matter of seconds, all of the Egg Pawns became scrap metal.

Tails and Espio would jump out of the Sea Fox and joined them. Tails was not pleased with the damage to the Sea Fox, but this one was a prototype, so he didn't worry too much, besides the fact that it was completely inoperable. The heroes started to rush through the base, taking care to dodge the halls that were being filled with water. Sonic almost ran right into a hall that was filling up with water, but closed the door before getting sucked up in the current.

Sonic sighed in relief. He hated having to be in water, so this mission quickly became one of his nightmares. Running through a building that was quickly being filled up with water. Before he could say anything, he barely heard a beeping that was being overlapped by the alarm. The beeping came from the emerald detector being held by Tails.

"Hey Tails, why is the emerald detector beeping?" Sonic asked.

"Apparently there is a Chaos Emerald in this base." Tails answered

"Should we go after it?" Knuckles asked.

"What about Amy?"

"Knowing Eggman, he probably put the two in the same room. We could go after both of them at once." Tails explained.

With that, the heroes went through to the center of the dome, destroying any and all guard robots that got in their way. They finally reached a large room and saw the box that Amy had been trapped in.

"Well, there's Amy, no Emerald…" Knuckles stated.

In an instant, the floor opened up in front of them, with a large robot popping up from the hole. The robot was similar in shape as the Egg Golem Sonic faced so long ago, except it was completely metal. This time, it did not seem to be piloted by Eggman. On its chest lay the light blue Chaos emerald in an orb. Its red eyes scanning the heroes, the robot attacked, and the group immediately scrambled in all directions.

Espio decided he would rescue Amy while the other three heroes distract the large robot. With his camouflage and natural climbing skills, Espio had almost no problem scaling the wall except when he almost got hit by a flying Knuckles, who was knocked straight into the wall. Keeping his moment of surprise to himself, Espio continued climbing.

The other heroes had a difficult time with the robot. If it wasn't for its random attacks, that went everywhere, it was the water that started to leak in. _If we don't hurry, none of us are getting out of here_ thought Sonic. The robot raised its arm to crush Sonic, who ran out of the way, the arm hit the floor, causing the dome to shake and creak. To everyone's surprise, the robot grabbed the box Amy was trapped in and broke it, with Amy now in its hand, unconscious from the glass breaking.

The heroes and the robot kept on fighting, not knowing where Espio was in the slightest. Espio actually jumped from the wall onto the robot's arm, climbing toward its chest. When reaching its chest, Espio managed to break the orb containing the Chaos Emerald and as he took it, the robot shut down and collapsed, its power supply gone.

Unfortunately, it dropped Amy as it shut down, sending her falling to the ground. Tails, who was flying in the air, managed to catch her. As he descended from the air, everyone checked to see if Amy was alright. Besides the glass breaking around her, she was fine. But now they were trapped in a collapsing tower, with the Sea Fox out of commission. Tails believed that they should head to the control room. They reached it after two minutes of fighting Egg Pawns.

Tails looked through the control panels and found a mechanism that would allow the dome to separate from the tower and ascend to the surface. After locking the door to the control room, he activated the mechanism. Four engines extended from the domes sides and it began to lift off after detaching from the tower. The now headless tower broke apart and collapsed onto the ocean floor just second after the separation. The dome blasted out of the water and into the sky.

There was a malfunction with the engines, causing them to deactivate and the dome crashed onto the land below. After the crash, Sonic got up from the ground and looked around. Most of the control room was destroyed; in fact most of the dome was ripped apart. After helping everyone out of the wreckage, Sonic landed on the ground which was quite icy. They were in tundra!

"Is everyone okay?" Sonic asked.

It seemed everyone was alright and unscathed, even Amy. As the group looked around, they heard an unexpected voice.

"Hello Sonic!" The group turned around to see that the voice came from none other than Eggman. "Enjoy you little ride?"


End file.
